Overlooked Issues Like Stale Accounts, Unmanaged Devices, and Misconfigured Apps Are Creating Hidden Attack Paths That Violate Zero Trust.
TAMPA BAY, FL / ACCESS Newswire / May 21, 2026 / Guardare has released a report and infographic on the most frequent security issues that have been identified across customer environments. These common gaps violate Zero Trust principles by creating implicit trust and unverified access paths that attackers exploit.
The issues found by the Guardare platform include unmanaged devices, stale accounts, disabled users that still belong to active groups, third-party apps without verified publishers, older authentication settings, broad application access, exposed passwords, EDR policy gaps, and missing device ownership records.
“These are not the findings that usually get the most attention,” said Dane Fiori, Founder and President of Guardare. “However, they are the typical vulnerabilities attackers use. A stale account by itself may not look like much. An unmanaged device may look like an IT cleanup item. A misconfigured app may look like a small setting. The problem starts when those things accumulate and go unnoticed.”
The top ten issues Guardare has surfaced most often in 2026 so far are:
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Devices not enrolled in MDM with unknown compliance status
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Inactive registered devices exceeding inactivity thresholds
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Disabled user objects still belonging to active security or mail groups
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Implicit grant ID token issuance enabled for web applications
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Service principals allowing implicit user access because AppRoleAssignmentRequired is disabled
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Third-party applications lacking verified publishers
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Active users still relying on passwords found in breach data
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EDR installed, but key protections not configured correctly
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Potentially inactive Entra ID user accounts remaining enabled
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Accounts missing device-user ownership records in Entra ID
Guardare says these problems usually appear because normal business creates drift. Contractors get temporary access. Devices are replaced. Apps are connected and forgotten. Security tools are installed, but not always tuned correctly. Staff turnover creates issues. Settings that made sense during a rollout stay in place long after the reason is gone.
None of that means a company is careless. It means the environment changes constantly, and most teams are still trying to understand it through disconnected tools.
“Security teams are not short on dashboards,” Fiori said. “They are short on connected context. Identity is in one place. Devices are in another. Endpoint controls have their own console. SaaS permissions are somewhere else. Attackers do not care how your internal systems are organized. They care about what they can chain together.”
Guardare’s report includes recommended remediation steps that can be taken, prioritized by risk.
Exposure management should not stop at findings. Data tells a team what exists. It does not always explain what matters. An inactive account may be low priority, but if that same account has old group memberships, a breached password, access to an app with broad permissions, and a device record with no clear owner, the risk changes.
The Guardare platform connects signals across users, devices, applications, identity, software, misconfigurations, and existing security tools. The goal is to help teams see what is exposed, why it matters, and what should be fixed first.
To download the full report visit https://www.guardare.com/whitepaper-and-ebooks/top-10-overlooked-security-issues-guardare-has-surfaced-in-2026
About Guardare
Guardare is an AI-powered Unified Exposure Management platform that helps organizations understand cyber risk across users, devices, applications, identity, software, misconfigurations, and existing security tools. Guardare gives security and IT teams a clearer view of exposure so they can prioritize the issues that matter most.
Media Contact:
Kathy Wattman
+17272508985
kathy@pulsepointcomms.com
SOURCE: Guardare
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire
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