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What is Principle of Least Privilege?

A security principle where users and programs receive only the minimum access rights needed to perform their specific tasks.

Least privilege minimizes the damage potential of compromised accounts, bugs, and insider threats. Implementation includes: database users with table-specific permissions (not superuser), application service accounts with restricted file system access, IAM roles with specific actions on specific resources, sudo rules for specific commands (not ALL), container processes running as non-root, and API keys with scoped permissions. In PostgreSQL, GRANT SELECT ON specific_table TO app_user is preferred over granting all privileges. This principle applies at every level: operating system, database, application, API, and cloud infrastructure. Regular access reviews ensure privileges stay minimal.

Related Terms

Security Hardening
The process of reducing a system's attack surface by disabling unnecessary services, applying patches, and configuring security controls.
XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
An attack that injects malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users, potentially stealing data or session tokens.
Security Audit
A systematic examination of an information system to assess compliance with security policies, identify vulnerabilities, and verify controls.
Secret Management
The practice of securely storing, accessing, and rotating sensitive credentials like API keys, passwords, and certificates.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
A strategy and set of tools that detect and prevent unauthorized transmission of sensitive data outside an organization.
DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service)
An attack that floods a target server or network with traffic from multiple sources to overwhelm it and deny service to legitimate users.
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