Rotate Shared Credentials on a Schedule (Without Breaking Everything)

Rotation that’s smart, not chaotic

Random, frequent password changes cause lockouts and sticky notes. Rotate where it matters most, and tie changes to events (handoffs, role changes, suspicion of exposure) plus a sensible schedule for high-impact secrets.

Event-driven first

• New collaborator or handoff — rotate right after first login and again at project end.
• Departure — revoke sessions/tokens and rotate immediately. Checklist: Employee Offboarding.
• Suspicion of exposure — contain and rotate now; follow: The Simple Incident Playbook for Leaked Passwords.

Then add a schedule (where appropriate)

• High-value shared logins (billing, domain registrar): quarterly.
• API tokens/keys that support expiry: monthly/quarterly with staggered rotation.
• Service accounts: use short-lived tokens if available; otherwise rotate on a predictable cadence.

Make rotation painless

• Announce the window and have a rollback plan.
• Stagger keys — create a new token, update clients, verify, then remove the old one.
• Re-share safely via one-time, expiring links + separate access code. Basics: The Safe Way to Share Passwords in 2025 (No Email).
• Record who has what (password manager notes + tags) and schedule the next review.

Useful external references

• NIST SP 800-63B: Digital Identity Guidelines 🔗 — avoid arbitrary forced changes unless there’s evidence of compromise; rotate smartly.
• CISA Security Resources 🔗 — checklists and guidance for credentials and identity.

Related reading

Policy that people follow: Secret-Sharing Policy

Developer handoffs (.env & keys): Share API Keys and .env Files (Safely)

Audit legacy exposures first: Audit Your Old Messages (90-Minute Sweep)

Bottom line

Rotate when risk changes—and on a clear cadence where it matters. Stagger, verify, and re-share safely to avoid outages and sticky notes.

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