Lessons · Cybersecurity · least privilege
Least privilege: only what the job needs
Every account, person and program gets the smallest set of rights that lets it do its job, and nothing more.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
The receptionist opened the attachment and the malware ran with her rights. Her account could read the shared calendar and the visitor book and nothing else, so that is all the malware could read. On the day it matters, least privilege is the difference between an afternoon and a month.
How to think about it
Start from nothing and add. For each account, ask what the role must read, what it must change, and for how long. Grant that, set a review date, and take it back when the role changes. Administrators do ordinary work on an ordinary account.
Worked example
Role first: warehouse pickerNamed before the account exists.
Needs: read stock levels, update pick statusTwo rights, written down.
Does not need: customer data, finance, administrator on the laptopWrite the noes too, so nobody adds them to be helpful.
Grant the two, set a review date, record who approved itThe account can do its job and almost nothing else.
Your turn
Least privilege grants which set of rights? Finish the phrase.
the set of rights that does the job
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Making everybody a local administrator because it closes support tickets. It also turns every careless click into a full compromise of the machine.