CyberArk vaults the credential. B5 enforces what the credential is used to do.
CyberArk is the leader in privileged access management and secrets — vaulting credentials, brokering privileged sessions, and now governing machine and non-human identities. But PAM governs access to the credential and the session; the authorization decision at the method that uses it still runs in your code. B5 enforces that action — in-process, at the call site — closing the gap PAM leaves open by design.
Framing: Use CyberArk to vault and broker credentials. Use B5 to enforce the scoped action those credentials perform.CyberArk owns privileged access and secrets — including non-human identity.
CyberArk’s strength is real and adjacent: vaulting secrets, isolating privileged sessions, rotating credentials, and extending into machine and non-human identity governance. B5 doesn’t replace any of it — it consumes the identities and secrets CyberArk manages. The gap PAM leaves, by design, is per-action authorization at the application method: holding a valid credential is not the same as being authorized to perform this action on this record, right now. B5 enforces exactly that.
Borrow this, don’t fight it
- Market-leading privileged access management and secrets vaulting
- Privileged session isolation, recording, and credential rotation
- Conjur and machine/non-human identity governance
- Deep enterprise and regulated-industry footprint
Govern the credential; the action it performs runs in your code
- PAM controls access to secrets and sessions — not the per-action decision at the method
- A held credential can still invoke an out-of-scope action unless your code checks
- Agent contexts holding brokered secrets need action-level scope, not just vaulting
- B5 will bind the agent’s OBO scope to [Permission] at the method (H2 2026) — out-of-scope calls fail closed
CyberArk decides. B5 enforces — at the line of code.
| CyberArk | B5 Secure | |
|---|---|---|
| Locus of enforcement | Credential vault / session broker (access to the secret) | In-process, at the call site |
| New live attack surface | Yes — operated platform | No added service or endpoint |
| Authorization data leaves your boundary | Varies (secrets management) | No — evaluated in-process |
| New sub-processor for the customer | Yes | No |
| .NET integration | SDK / agent / connector | Idiomatic [Permission] attributes & middleware |
| Agent identity model | Non-human identity (credential-centric) | First-class + in-process enforcement today; agent OBO + ephemeral scope is a Q4 2026 roadmap extension |
| Best role in your architecture | Vault secrets & broker privileged access | Enforce the decision where it executes |
Capability status. In-process [Permission] enforcement Generally Available Agent OBO delegation, ephemeral SPIFFE-compatible agent identity and CAEP/SSF signal ingestion are Q4 2026 roadmap extensions Preview.
The questions a buyer actually asks
We have CyberArk for secrets and PAM. Where does B5 fit?
Directly downstream. CyberArk ensures the right identity holds the right credential; B5 ensures that, once a credential is in hand, the specific action it’s used for is authorized at the method — per call, with delegated scope. Vaulting and action-enforcement are complementary, not redundant.
CyberArk does non-human identity now — isn’t that the agent story?
CyberArk governs the agent’s credential lifecycle; B5 governs the agent’s actions. An agent with a perfectly vaulted, rotated secret can still attempt an out-of-scope call. B5 makes that call fail closed at the .NET method, and logs the agent and the originating human at the execution point.
Is this a rip-and-replace?
No. Keep CyberArk for PAM and secrets. Add B5 as the in-process enforcement of the actions those credentials perform — with no new sub-processor, since B5 runs inside your own cloud.
Complementary, not competitive.
CyberArk issues and vaults; B5 enforces the scoped use.
Let CyberArk vault secrets, broker privileged sessions, and govern non-human identity lifecycles. Let B5 enforce, at each .NET method, that the action a credential is being used for is within the holder’s — or the agent’s delegated — scope. Possession of a credential is not authorization to act; B5 supplies the authorization, in-process.
Vault the credential. Enforce the action. B5 closes the gap PAM leaves.
Bring your architecture to a B5 architect. We’ll show you exactly where CyberArk ends and where in-process enforcement begins — and the Trust Center a library, not a platform, gets to publish.
See enforcement at the record. Live.
Thirty minutes with a B5 engineer: your stack, the B1–B5 pipeline, and a data-element authorization decision you can watch happen — for humans, services, and AI agents alike.