Too Much Authorization and Least Privilege

With the principle of “least privilege,” is it possible to have too much authorization?

Yes, it is possible to have too much authorization when applying the principle of least privilege. The principle of least privilege dictates that a user, program, or process should have only the minimum necessary privileges to perform its legitimate function, and no more. If an entity has more authorization than is required for its task, it directly contradicts this principle.

What happens when there is too much authorization?

When there is too much authorization, it creates significant security vulnerabilities and risks:

• Increased Attack Surface: Excess privileges mean that if an account or system is compromised, an attacker gains more capabilities than they should have, allowing them to access or modify resources beyond the initial target. For example, if a user account meant for data entry also has administrative rights to critical servers, a breach of that account could lead to a full system compromise.
• Wider Impact of Malware and Errors: Malware operating under an account with excessive privileges can cause more widespread damage, such as encrypting an entire network drive instead of just a user's files. Similarly, an accidental misconfiguration or deletion by a user with too many permissions can have severe, unintended consequences across the system.
• Elevated Insider Threat: Employees or internal processes with unnecessary high-level access pose a greater risk of malicious activity or data breaches. This is covered in security discussions regarding organizational control as described by authors like Kizza.
• Difficulty in Auditing and Forensics: When users or processes have broad access, it becomes harder to trace specific actions back to their origin or determine the exact scope of a breach during an incident response.

The core idea is to reduce the potential for harm, whether from external attacks, internal threats, or accidental errors, by limiting capabilities. This concept is fundamental to access control, as discussed in sources like Joseph Migga Kizza’s Guide to Computer Network Security and Differentiating Between Access Control Terms.