Why SSO isn't enough

Single Sign-On (SSO) has transformed the way organizations think about and manage employee access, offering a seamless experience that reduces password fatigue and simplifies IT workflows. For many enterprises, SSO feels like the ultimate solution to authentication challenges. But this is not the case - while SSO provides robust security to the accounts it covers, it's not the comprehensive security solution many organizations believe it to be.

The reality is that SSO alone cannot eliminate password challenges or fully safeguard your organization's credentials. Understanding why requires a closer look at SSO's limitations and the critical security gaps it leaves when not paired with a password manager.

One of the biggest misconceptions of SSO is that it covers every account and application. However, despite widespread adoption of SSO solutions, up to two-thirds of critical business applications are not SSO-enabled. According to Okta, “At times, an app isn’t set up to effectively integrate with an SSO solution.” This creates substantial security vulnerabilities that many organizations leave unaddressed.

Critical business tools your teams rely on are often left out of SSO protection. These include:

• Personal accounts employees create for business purposes (shadow IT)

• Legacy applications that predate your SSO implementation

• Vendor portals for suppliers and partners

• Industry-specific tools with limited integration capabilities

• New SaaS solutions still awaiting lengthy SSO onboarding

Without proper password storage and protection for these applications, organizations face several risks. Employees may resort to weak, reused passwords for convenience or store credentials in unencrypted locations like spreadsheets or sticky notes. These shortcuts may feel harmless in the moment, but they open dangerous back doors for attackers, and a single compromised password can undermine even the strongest SSO strategy.

While SSO excels at simplifying the login experience, robust security goes beyond authentication. For instance, several common workplace scenarios remain outside its scope. 

Organizations regularly need to grant trusted vendors access to sensitive business accounts or specialized tools used by team members. SSO doesn't offer a way to do this securely with centralized oversight. Without proper tools, the Bitwarden Password Decisions Survey found that 53% of IT decision-makers share passwords via email, 41% through chat, and 31% through conversation. These informal methods compromise security and leave no audit trail.

Emergency access protocols present another challenge. What happens when a key employee is unavailable and critical systems need to be reached? SSO does not provide a backup plan, which can lead to costly business disruptions or worse. On the other hand, password managers deliver structured emergency access capabilities with proper audit trails and security controls that ensure business continuity.

Managing temporary vendors and contractors requires teams to grant short-term access to essential systems and business information. Because SSO lacks the ability to share credentials with external parties, organizations are forced to rely on manual and often unsafe workarounds.  According to a Cybersecurity Pulse Survey conducted by Bitwarden, more than half (55%) of IT decision makers view third-party contractors and consultants among the highest at-risk groups of supply chain attacks, but the least likely to be covered by security guardrails. A strong business password manager is the most effective way to enable automated provisioning and deprovisioning of contractor accounts, protecting your systems without slowing down collaboration.

SSO doesn't eliminate the need for strong password policies. For applications outside SSO coverage, organizations must still ensure password complexity requirements are met and maintained.

Password managers address this challenge by generating complex, unique passwords for each application and enforcing organizational password policies across all stored credentials. This ensures consistent security standards regardless of whether an application supports SSO integration.

Without this enforcement mechanism, organizations often find that security standards vary dramatically between SSO-integrated and non-SSO applications, creating weak points in their overall security architecture.

Organizations that rely solely on SSO often discover significant security gaps during comprehensive audits. Legacy systems, emerging applications, and specialized tools frequently fall outside SSO coverage, creating exploitable vulnerabilities. 

For organizations that have invested in SSO, adding password management creates a complete security approach that works alongside SSO to protect every account. 

SSO handles authentication for integrated applications, while password management secures credentials for everything else. SSO can control access to the password vault itself—extending your SSO's authentication protections to every credential stored within the vault, even for applications that don't support SSO directly. This combination ensures that all applications receive appropriate security protections while maintaining the user convenience that makes SSO valuable. Together, they provide phishing protection, secure sharing capabilities, and comprehensive audit trails across your application landscape.

Ready to get complete credential security? Talk to a Bitwarden expert today to learn how Bitwarden Password Manager secures your SSO blind spots.