The present disclosure relates generally to computer architecture and infrastructure for guest operating systems executing on a host operating system. A method of authenticating and authorizing a user in an emulated computing environment is disclosed. The method includes receiving a request by a user operating on a guest operating system and having user credentials to invoke a process in a secure sandbox on a host operating system; searching a pool of credentials for the user credentials in the host operating system; associating the user credentials with the process such that all services running on a guest operating system have the same credentials as a host operating system; and after the process has completed, returning the user credentials to the pool.