Secret Server (originally from Thycotic, now from Delinea since the 2021 Thycotic merger with Centrify) is an enterprise password management application, which is available with either a cloud-based or on-premise deployment which emphasizes fast deployment, scalability, and simplicity.
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ManageEngine Password Manager Pro
Score 6.8 out of 10
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ManageEngine Password Manager Pro is the Zoho Corporation's password management solution for small and medium sized businesses and enterprises alike.
Great for managing access to secrets and servers and is more secure than storing passwords in a browser. The browser plugin to autofill passwords works well. Being able to schedule access ahead of time is a big plus for me as I can be forgetful. If you want a lightweight password vault, however, it may not be the best choice.
It's great for any company that relies on active-directory as their primary source of user password authentication and other data. It's ability to integrate with a host of other tools such as Google Workspace, Azure AD (if you aren't using ADFS/DirSync/etc.), FreshService, Trello, etc. as well local apps like Postgres, i/AS400, and more make it a great middleware tool for SS.
Password Management: Its entire purpose, really. Secret Server stores passwords in an incredibly easy to use way. They can be organized in groups, they contain all the information about the site or system the password is used for (including URLs for websites), and even a notes field. You can set up specific policies for expirations and complexity, and Secret Server can even generate strong passwords for you. Using a password is simple, too, since you can just click a button to add it to your clipboard; you don't even have to unmask the password.
Security: The passwords are stored encrypted in a SQL database, and the application requires an authenticated login. This could be local, but we tie it into Active Directory. Each folder of passwords has groups assigned (in our case, again, AD, but you can make them local groups) with different permission levels, so we can compartmentalize passwords. Desktop technicians don't have access to network switch passwords, etc.
Easy Setup: It took me about an hour to get the server running, from spinning up the VM to importing our old password list. It took a little longer to organize the passwords into proper folders, and then assigning groups, but it was easy to do.
Personal Passwords: Each user also gets a personal folder, where they can keep their own, unshared passwords. This is nice for sites or systems with individualized logins (e.g., a firewall, VPN, etc.)
Favorites: Secret Server lets you tag passwords as "favorites" so you can easily find ones you use constantly. The search feature is nice, but this is nicer.
PMP is great for sorting passwords into different groups depending on the category of application access. This makes it easy to find the password that you are looking for.
Application credentials can easily be saved to the clipboard to make it easier to copy and paste them into the appropriate log in screen.
Different types of credentials for the same application can be stored next to each other and are easy to distinguish by the icon next to the name. For example, SSH credentials, web credentials, and local root credentials are all easy to sort under one application group.
The sharing functionality NEEDS improvement. We share most passwords at a group level, but then it becomes impossible to share them with a dynamic group and one or two one-off people as well. This is a major shortcoming.
I don't love the interface. I feel like there is an attempt at a dashboard, but it is really not effective.
I've heard, but never seen, that the software can actually change passwords in the target systems. If this is part of its deliverable, I do not know how to use it, and I don't know how you would do that. Seems like a great feature for password management.
There is no flexibility in how accounts are grouped.
The implementation of lowest privilege means you cannot use groups for assigning role based security. If you give a team read access, and a limited subset of the team write access, the read access supersedes write.
Some versions have been fragile. There have been times where the server has stopped working and needed a restart daily/weekly. Read the issues resolved in updates. There have been some critical failures in security over the years (i.e. unauthorized access possible by URL manipulation).
There were not very many solutions that provided the entire package of taking an account from creation and deactivating it when no longer needed, as well as providing the discovery of unknown service accounts. Other solutions like RoboForm and LastPass did not offer the ability to manage your service accounts and added layers of complication to ensure security.
We evaluated one on-premise solution, Password Manager Pro, one cloud-based solution called Passwordstate to store all sensitive password information and also secure notes. The latter was licensed by users, so we knew as the team grew it would cost quite a lot more to maintain. We wanted access for various users within the information technology and systems department at a granular level to have separation of the various passwords into categories which we then give permission relevant for the right users.
