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Privileged Access Management (PAM) software helps organizations protect their most sensitive IT assets by ensuring that privileged account credentials—such as administrator accounts for critical systems—are only accessible to users with the appropriate permissions. By enforcing least privilege access policies, PAM software minimizes the risk of external hacking or internal misuse by granting users only the minimum level of access needed to perform their job functions. PAM solutions store privileged credentials securely in a centralized vault (often referred to as a password safe) and control access based on predefined policies, such as user permissions and specific time constraints. These tools often log user activity when accessing privileged credentials, providing valuable audit trails. Additionally, when a user checks out a credential, PAM software prevents simultaneous access by others, ensuring that only one person can access the privileged account at any given time. While PAM software works alongside Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions—ensuring proper authentication for regular user identities—PAM provides more detailed control and visibility for administrative or privileged user identities. Although PAM tools and password managers both offer secure vaults for credentials, they serve distinct purposes. Password managers protect the passwords of everyday users, whereas PAM software is designed to safeguard the access of super users, shared accounts, and service accounts, providing centralized control, visibility, and monitoring of these high-level credentials.