What is Least Privilege?

Identity Foundations

8 min

Speaker: Paul Querna CTO, Co-founder ConductorOne

In this video, CTO Paul Querna breaks down how access accumulates over time and introduces practical tools like just-in-time access, user access reviews, and role-based automation to enforce least privilege and reduce identity risk.

Main Takeaways

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Access naturally accumulates over an employee’s time at a company, creating unnecessary risk.
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Least privilege means reshaping that access graph so it rises and falls based on real need, not just seniority or tenure.
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Just-in-time (JIT) access is ideal for high-risk systems like cloud infrastructure and databases.
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User access reviews (UARs) help prune outdated access, but require thoughtful automation to be effective.
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Role-based (RBAC) and attribute-based (ABAC) policies should automatically adjust access as employees change roles.

Learn More

What Is Least Privilege?

The principle of least privilege (PoLP) is an approach to identity security that ensures users only have access to what they need and no more. Learn the benefits of this approach and how to implement it.

7 Principles for Least Privilege Access Implementation

Though systems and sensitivities vary, every company can benefit from incorporating least privilege access best practices into their identity security and access control processes. Read about these seven principles to get started.

Least Privilege Access: What You Need to Know

As one of the core tenants of zero trust, least privilege access is probably the least understood and the hardest to reach today. At the highest level, think of least privilege access as providing people – or identities more generally – the access they need to do a job, and for no longer than they need it.