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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

XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
An attack that injects malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users, potentially stealing data or session tokens.
Phishing
A social engineering attack that uses fraudulent communications to trick people into revealing sensitive information or installing malware.
Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
A security method requiring two different forms of identification before granting access to an account.
Session Hijacking
An attack where an adversary takes over a legitimate user session by stealing or predicting the session identifier.
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.
DAST (Dynamic Application Security Testing)
Testing a running application from the outside by sending malicious requests to discover security vulnerabilities.
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