Delinea announced the latest release of Server Suite, part of its Server PAM solution, which secures and consolidates identity access to servers. Enhancements include new authentication options for organizations using Active Directory (AD), multi-factor authentication (MFA), Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), and IBM AIX Unix systems to further improve security for identities requesting access to critical systems.  

21% of all cybersecurity incidents involved the deployment of backdoors, surpassing even ransomware as the most common action or activity in 2022, as reported by IBM. Backdoor attacks can circumvent normal authentication mechanisms; without privileged access controls, bad actors can achieve larger objectives like exfiltrating data. To combat this threat, organizations can integrate their authentication services with MFA enforcement as an additional identity check for consistent privileged access controls that leave minimal standing privileges that backdoors can exploit.  

Expanded authentication options for stronger privileged access controls 

Improvements to Server Suite's certificate-based authentication align with updates Microsoft is making to Active Directory and ensure organizations can take advantage of the latest security measures when controlling privileged access to AD-joined servers. A new method for managing pluggable authentication modules allows greater flexibility and control when managing privileged access to servers running RHEL. New support for IBM AIX extended attributes improves authentication management for these systems. For further identity assurance, customers can now specify multiple connectors for MFA when a subset of the connectors needs to be used to ensure high availability when enforcing additional identity checks at server log-in and privilege elevation. 

"Authenticating the right user and providing strong controls for what they can access greatly improves security against identity-based attacks, especially on servers that host critical data and workloads," said Sara Otremba, Director of Product Management at Delinea. "This Server Suite release offers organizations greater flexibility in authenticating users across different operating systems, preventing backdoor attacks resulting from privileged access abuse and limiting lateral movement." 

Additional updates in this release include a better user experience when managing the patented Zones technology and support for AIX 7.3, Fedora Linux 36, 37; Alpine Linux 3.15, 3.16; Debian 11.5; Oracle Linux 8.6, 9; AlmaLinux 9; and Rocky Linux 9. 

Organizations can start a free trial of the latest version of Server Suite, part of the Delinea Server PAM solution, at https://delinea.com/products/server-pam.