EMZETT.Principle of least privilege
In short: The principle of least privilege states: every person, program and account gets only the rights it truly needs for its task, and no more.
In more detail: If an account or program is attacked, the damage is limited to its rights. A web server that may only read cannot delete a database. This is one of the most effective security measures there is.
In Depth
- Accounts: Do not use an administrator account day to day. Admin rights only briefly and deliberately.
- Database: The application gets its own user with exactly the necessary table rights, not the superuser.
- Cloud: Tailor access roles tightly; do not copy a key “with all rights” into scripts.
- Processes: Services run under their own unprivileged user, containers without
--privileged. - Review: Check rights regularly and revoke what is unused. Time-limit new rights where possible.