Reducing cybersecurity risk: Limiting access rights to essential functions limits the attack surface and counters malware propagation; as attackers won’t use elevated privileges to infect systems or spread infection among accounts and applications.
Less privileged access reduces the risks associated with accidental infections, leaks and outages caused by employee negligence or malicious actors, while increasing performance by limiting resource consumption.
What Is the Principle of Least Privilege(PoLP)?
The Principle of Least Privilege, commonly referred to as PoLP, stipulates that users, accounts and applications only receive privileges necessary to accomplish their work. It has long been considered an essential cybersecurity best practice and an integral part of protecting privileged access.
By granting minimal permissions, systems and devices can significantly decrease their attack surface area, reduce cyberattacks and malware spread, enhance operational performance and minimize human error by discouraging over-privileged users from performing high-risk actions.
Systems hardening, which entails the removal of unnecessary programs and services and closing unneeded firewall ports, is an integral component of any comprehensive security framework. Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions can assist in this endeavor by identifying and eliminating unnecessary privileges while still permitting for essential functions to remain functional.
Combining Zero Trust with application control, ZTNA 2.0’s PoLP capabilities enable IT admins to dynamically identify users, devices, apps and functions dynamically at sub-app level – without worrying about FQDNs, ports or protocols – and achieve fine-grained access control for comprehensive least privilege access.
How does the principle of least privilege works?
Zero-trust network access (ZTNA) helps organizations improve their security posture by decreasing cybersecurity risks by restricting users to only have permissions they need for their role. Least privilege access control helps organizations reduce cybersecurity risk by restricting users to only those permissions necessary. This principle forms one of its core tenets and can significantly decrease attack surface.
This principle is essential in protecting against data breaches caused by human error or malicious attack. Without it, one small error by an over-privileged user could quickly spiral out of control into an expensive nightmare.
Identity and access management tools offer an effective solution to ensure employees do not become over-privileged by allowing groups or roles access to applications, making it simpler when an employee leaves by only having to remove access for one group or application rather than all users who might have had rights granted to them.
By implementing POLP, organizations can reduce the damage from social engineering attacks that exploit passwords or execute infected file attachments. Furthermore, this restricts malware infections’ ability to install additional applications that expand their attack surface – protecting themselves from accidental or intentional data breaches and protecting their organization against accidental data leakage.
How to Implement POLP
Implementing Privileged Access Management (PAM) policies that incorporate POLP can help mitigate risks, tighten security controls and counter threat activity. By restricting employee access only to systems, software, data required for their roles – POLP will minimize human errors exploitable by malware or hackers.
Implementing this principle is no simple task. To be successful, it requires an in-depth evaluation of essential user and application duties to define roles and privileges for roles that make sense and regular audits to make sure privilege access has not expanded unnecessarily over time.
Financial employees need the ability to create backups while not being able to delete files, for instance. To implement this principle, start by disabling default admin access and outlining processes for gaining elevated permissions when required. Next, apply and enforce least privilege policies across all accounts and enforce access rules as a least privilege policy to ensure users only possess minimum levels of access needed for their roles and that all privileged credentials are closely monitored.
1. Enforce the separation of privileges
POLP enforces separation of privileges to limit the scope of an attack by providing users and applications with only those privileges necessary to fulfill their responsibilities, thus decreasing the chance that malware spreads to other parts of the network by discouraging users from increasing access to non-essential information.
To do this effectively, it’s necessary to divide admin accounts from standard employee accounts, limit the number of elevated privileges granted and make sure that each privileged account has unique passwords with only limited permissions granted. Furthermore, password safes must be implemented so that credentials cannot be reused by malicious attackers after an activity has concluded.
Implementing the principle of least privilege may be challenging when dealing with legacy systems and third-party vendors; however, implementing best practices can mitigate cybersecurity risks while improving operational performance, including audit readiness, reducing costs, and providing employees with freedom to do their work without roadblocks or frustration.
2. Conduct a privilege audit
Organizations looking to maximize POLP must regularly conduct user access and privilege audits in order to detect changes or any unauthorized activity such as suspicious deletions of accounts. A privileged account management (PAM) tool in conjunction with security information and event management tools can automate these processes and ensure all accounts are assigned with minimal privileges.
The Principle of Least Privilege states that accounts, devices and applications should only receive permissions necessary for essential functions – this is known as need to know or need-do access – such as when an accounting clerk needs access only to invoice and payment systems rather than customer or HR records.
Assuming a minimal level of privilege helps protect against cyber attacks and reduce potential damage from insider threats, as well as limit attack surfaces and stop malware spreading lateral through network movement by restricting their scope. It allows employees to work more productively since permissions become available more quickly.
3. Start all accounts with least privilege
Implementing least privilege access policies ensures users only possess the rights they require for their jobs, thus decreasing the likelihood of unintended and malicious activities, such as data breaches or malware infections, that can cost companies financially, legally, and reputationally. It can also help improve system stability, operational performance and productivity.
POLP provides a centralized way of controlling and protecting privileged accounts, credentials and permissions for human users as well as machines – devices, applications, networks and databases alike. When implemented properly, this system ensures security against malicious insiders who could cause great harm by exploiting low-level accounts to gain administrative rights – known as privilege escalation risks.
As well, time-bound access can also help limit human error. Even well-intentioned employees may mistakenly mistype or delete critical data. Access that is limited in time can limit this damage; along with regular auditing and monitoring processes it provides protection against human error – just like locking the front door rather than leaving keys under the mat!
4. Make individual actions traceable
The principle of least privilege helps limit how malware spreads once it infiltrates an account or device, and hasten system stability. Hackers exploiting privileged credentials often cause data breaches by moving laterally across an organization in pursuit of administrative privileges.
Making the transition to full implementation of POLP involves several components, policies and technologies. A privilege audit must first take place to uncover all privileged accounts (local users, endpoints, SSH keys and Windows and Linux groups) which must come under policy management for proper management. Furthermore, an effective zero trust security model is necessary so that access is granted after identity and context verification.
Finally, security requires the ability to quickly revoke privileges when user needs change; such as when third-party vendors or employees leave your organization. Furthermore, it’s vitally important that access monitoring be implemented to detect misaligning permissions or potential misuse of privileged access.
5. Make it regular
The principle of least privilege is an essential cybersecurity best practice that protects mission-critical systems and data against malicious attacks while helping reduce business disruption caused by human error.
Enforcing POLP limits users to only the data, networks and applications necessary for them to complete their job functions effectively. This significantly lowers an organization’s attack surface while simultaneously preventing malware propagation through installation of unapproved applications and by restricting privileged access on end user devices that attackers often exploit to spread malware further and compromise more systems.
Implementing POLP shouldn’t stop with internal users alone; third-party vendors also pose significant risk and applying this security principle can mitigate some of it. Hackers that compromised 70 million Target customer accounts in 2015 used HVAC vendor credentials to gain entry. To further mitigate third-party risk, deploy an automated vendor management process that automates your vendor security assessment plan, requests remediation from high-risk vendors and more.
The Benefits of Implementing the Principle of Least Privilege POLP
The principle of least privilege (POLP) reduces cybersecurity risk by guaranteeing accounts are started off with minimal access rights and privileges over time; it prevents users from having access to systems they do not require.
This can help thwart malware attacks and limit damage from ransomware or malicious insiders, as well as improve audit readiness and meet regulatory compliance requirements.
Why Is the Principle of Least Privilege Important?
The principle of least privilege can help lower attack risks by restricting access to privileged accounts to only what’s strictly required. It’s a security best practice that applies to humans, devices, applications, networks servers databases etc.
Anti-lateral movement in your network is enhanced by providing only minimum privileges to each account, thereby decreasing vulnerability and stopping malware propagation. Furthermore, this helps limit damage done when employees gain access to sensitive data or critical systems.
Separation of duties is an excellent way to bolster security beyond following the principle of least privilege. For example, granting an accounts specialist access to both customer database admin rights as well as employee salary data would increase security risk significantly and potentially create vendor accounts and pay fictitious invoices that compromise availability and integrity.
Regular reviews of all privileged account access should help to ensure that only necessary privileges are being utilized, thus helping prevent excessive permissions for users, devices or applications as well as uncover unused or outdated accounts.
Benefits of the Principle of Least Privilege
The Principle of Least Privilege can protect organizations from numerous issues. It reduces data breaches and malware proliferation by only providing users or connected devices with necessary privileges, as well as hardening systems by eliminating unnecessary programs, accounts and systems – making it harder for cyber attackers to gain access to sensitive data while providing security professionals an opportunity to monitor privileged credentials for signs of attack.
Marketing managers do not need continual access to payroll data, while software developers shouldn’t be granted rights to delete or alter application source code. A need-to-know approach allows you to set granular permissions based on users’ job functions.
For this strategy to work effectively, a system must be in place that centrally manages both human and machine privileged accounts across platforms. An automated solution that enforces configured access rights while providing business intelligence reporting can simplify the process of identifying, revoking, deprovisioning and cancelling excess accounts without jeopardizing security, compliance or user productivity.
1. Minimized attack surface
The principle of least privilege limits the level of access that any user can have to systems, applications and data. This helps reduce attack surfaces while making it harder for threat actors to discover vulnerabilities or steal sensitive information.
Example: If you give a key to your home to a neighbor, they can enter through the front door but cannot gain access to your filing cabinet. According to the principle of least privilege, each user is only granted permissions necessary for their job function.
POLP can also protect against third-party risks. Hackers gained access to 70 million Target customers by exploiting an HVAC contractor’s ability to upload executables; with POLP you can limit malware’s spread by restricting who can change settings and configurations.
In order to comply with the principle of least privilege, review your privileged accounts and permissions on an ongoing basis. Newer companies should host monthly reviews; established ones can organize quarterly ones – this way you’ll ensure you achieve an appropriate balance between security and productivity.
2. Better security
POLP can significantly lower cybersecurity risks and protect critical systems and sensitive information by restricting access to low-level user accounts, devices, applications and networks – forcing hackers to target only parts of your system that were compromised instead of spreading into wider network areas.
Human users can follow this same principle by restricting their access to systems, processes and information based on their needs. For instance, employees creating database backups don’t require root privileges and should work in standard accounts that only permit backup related apps to run. Access like this can then be time-limited and removed once no longer required; protecting both your organization and sensitive information from accidental or intentional destruction by employees.
Granular access control can also help enhance audit readiness by eliminating the need to manually log all activity. This saves both time and resources while simultaneously improving data classification for your organization’s systems, databases, and files.
3. Better stability
The principle of least privilege is one of three cornerstones in an all-inclusive information security framework known as authentication, authorization and accounting (or accountability). When applied to users, applications, and processes it means making sure each has only the bare minimum access rights required for their task, thus helping keep systems stable while improving fault tolerance and increasing user productivity.
PoLP helps mitigate the damage of compromised applications that gain access to sensitive information by restricting their lateral spread or accessing additional critical data. As a result, replacing older remote access VPN technologies like Microsoft RDP and Citrix with solutions that enforce PoLP is of vital importance for network security.
Similarly, if an employee requires root access for a critical task, they should only use those credentials when needed and then immediately withdraw them afterwards. This “just in time” approach to least privilege is often known as privilege bracketing and can help enhance security within an organization.
4. Limited malware propagation
Less-privileged user accounts make it harder for malware to spread laterally; if an employee only has admin access to one database and clicks on a malicious link from a phishing email, damage should only affect that small section of the network; but if that same employee had root or super-admin privileges, any infection would likely spread more widely across their entire network.
The Principle of Least Privilege helps maintain system stability and enhance operational functionality, as users only receive privileges they need for their jobs to complete, while applications are less likely to crash or experience compatibility issues when given less privileges.
At a time of expanding networks with multiple assets located on-prem, in virtual and cloud environments, managing least privilege privilege management becomes essential. Through zero trust network access (ZTNA), centralizing management and security of privileged credentials becomes possible, providing users with only what is absolutely essential for their jobs.
5. Improved audit readiness
A combination of the Principle of Least Privilege and Zero Trust policies reduces an organization’s attack surface by decreasing the ways potential threats can exploit vulnerabilities or hack into systems. Furthermore, this approach centrally manages and secures privileged credentials limiting them only as necessary for approved tasks.
POLP offers organizations an improved method for classifying data and demonstrating compliance with laws and regulations like GDPR, PCI DSS, HIPAA, FDDC and Sarbanes-Oxley. Furthermore, POLP helps organizations track user activity for more efficient auditing and accountability purposes.
The Principle of Least Privilege limits privileges for users, accounts and computing processes to only those essential for performing their intended function. For instance, an account used for backup doesn’t need access to install software – therefore this capability would be blocked for this particular account. This separation of duties ensures one employee cannot accidentally or intentionally cause harm to the company by gaining too much access, while also helping limit malware propagation by keeping attacks within their source rather than spreading to multiple places in a network.
6. Better stability
Users with only the minimum privileges necessary for their jobs won’t accidentally modify or destroy anything else, which reduces cybersecurity risks caused by human error while improving system stability, functionality and workplace productivity.
Principle of Least Privilege can provide additional advantages by preventing hackers from exploiting vulnerabilities similar to those exploited by more privileged accounts, thereby limiting any damage done by cybercriminals, helping improve audit readiness and incident response.
Privilege creep occurs when users are granted more rights than necessary in order to fulfill their job functions, with those rights remaining unrevoked upon completion of those tasks. POLP prevents this by only providing temporary access for as long as necessary before revoking it once that task has been accomplished.
The principle of least privilege can also help mitigate third- and fourth-party risks by granting vendors only those levels of access they require for their work, helping improve audit readiness and regulatory compliance.