What Is Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management?

Standing access privileges create access gaps, which, if not carefully managed, can serve as potential gateways for security breaches. These breaches can further impact data security. To address such threats, Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM) can be implemented. In this article, we'll discuss PEDM, how it works, its importance, and the strategies for effective implementation.

Managing access privileges can be daunting in a large organization with hundreds or thousands of users. Moreover, if managed manually, there's a significant risk of oversight, such as failing to revoke access after tasks are finished.

These oversights can have severe consequences as lingering privileges create potential security vulnerabilities, inviting breaches and compromising sensitive data.

Implementing privilege elevation and delegation management (PEDM) emerges as the optimal solution to address this challenge and prevent such security lapses.

But what is PEDM?

What Is Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management?

Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM) refers to the systematic approach IT teams use to enforce granular controls over temporarily elevating access privileges.

This approach further helps them reduce the likelihood of standing privileges (prolonged access rights held by users that allow them to gain unrestricted access to the organization's sensitive data, SaaS apps, and systems).

Furthermore, PEDM solutions are introduced to manage this process effectively. What are PEDM solutions?

Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management solution is a tool designed to provide your team complete control over privilege access. It also allows them to effectively manage and monitor the elevation of access privileges for users or applications on an as-needed basis.

Importance Of Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management

Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management implementation is crucial for several reasons, some of which are listed below:

• Enforces Granular Privilege Restrictions: With PEDM, your teams can establish and enforce access control for different situations. For instance, it allows your team to grant additional privileges to users in certain situations (like task completion) while still restricting their ability to change the data of the applications they access. This practice is referred to as privilege segregation. It helps create a secure environment for SaaS app data by ensuring users can utilize apps as needed for their tasks without altering or compromising the data within those applications.Moreover, PEDM extends beyond privilege segregation to implement other control policies:
• Just-in-Time Access Control: PEDM supports the concept of just-in-time access by granting permissions for a limited duration. Non-admin users requiring access to critical apps can submit privilege elevation requests to their team. After verification, users receive privilege elevation for a short period.
• Principle of Least Privilege (POLP): PEDM's granular control capabilities make it easier to enforce the principle of least privilege. By adhering to PoLP, PEDM ensures that users are granted access only to the apps required to fulfill their tasks, thereby reducing the risk of unauthorized access and enhancing overall security posture.
• Limits of Hacker Lateral Movement: At the end of a privileged session, PEDM automatically revokes the granted rights. So, even if hackers gain access to and compromise the credentials of privileged accounts, their actions are restricted, preventing further network infiltration and damage.
• Reduces Admin Accounts: When used alongside Privilege Account and Session Management (PASM), PEDM effectively reduces the number of administrative accounts within a company. System administrators no longer require dedicated admin accounts; they can attain admin privileges through regular user/standard accounts with PEDM. This significantly mitigates both external and internal cyber risks by minimizing privileged accounts and sessions, thereby reducing potential attack surfaces.
• Effectively Manages Compliances: PEDM helps in adhering to compliance regulatory standards by providing monitoring and reporting functionalities. These functionalities enable your team to track and document privileged activities, ensuring they comply with relevant regulations and standards. Also, it helps demonstrate their compliance efforts to auditors and regulatory authorities.

Core Capabilities Of Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management

These are the 3 key capabilities offered by privilege elevation and delegation management:

1: Endpoint least privilege management: This feature monitors and controls privilege elevation and delegation of Windows and macOS endpoints (desktops, laptops, and similar devices).

Furthermore, endpoint privilege management has the capability to revoke local admin rights from users and elevate access as required for specific applications.

2: Application Control: This feature involves allowlisting, blocklisting, and greylisting capabilities. It provides your team with control over how applications are allowed to operate.

This also includes determining which applications can run, how they can run, and under what conditions.

3: Active Directory (AD): This solution integrates Unix and Linux systems with Microsoft Active Directory. By extending Active Directory's authentication and single sign-on to Unix/Linux, it centralizes user access.

This integration enhances identity & access management and ensures more uniform policy enforcement throughout the organization's IT infrastructure.

But what problem does PEDM exactly resolve?

Problems Solved By Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management

At times, users may require temporary administrative access to SaaS apps for project completion. In such situations, organizations must have a mechanism to swiftly grant and revoke this access. This is crucial because even temporary admin privileges pose a risk of being stolen or compromised, just like full admin rights.

Although this can be solved by Privileged Access and Session Management (PASM).

Note: The PASM solution provides temporary admin access through a password vault. This vault gives users access to the required server. It also logs how users access the server during the admin session, which is further used for monitoring purposes. Once the session is concluded, the admin access is promptly revoked.

But a drawback of PASM solutions is that it has the tendency to grant access on an "all-or-nothing" basis. Also, temporary admins may gain access to everything on the target server, including applications or scripts they don't require or shouldn't be allowed to access.

If these temporary credentials are leaked, hackers can exploit the open session to gain unrestricted access to the target server.

So, to effectively address this issue, Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management comes into the picture.

Instead of giving users full admin rights, which could potentially expose the system to greater risk. PEDM allows your team to grant access only to specific parts of the system or actions that users need to perform.

This granular control over access helps minimize the chances of unauthorized access or misuse of privileged accounts, thereby enhancing security.

However, PEDM solutions also assist in mitigating other types of attack methods. Let's quickly look at which attack methods do PEDM addresses.

Examples Of Threats Addressed By PEDM

Here is a list of potential attack methods that PEDM can prevent or reduce:

• Installation of spyware and adware
• Unauthorized access to data belonging to other users
• Substitution of OS and program files with malicious applications
• Disabling or removing antivirus software
• Unauthorized creation or alteration of user accounts
• Resetting local passwords without authorization
• Rendering the system unable to boot
• Exposing entire networks to malware, viruses, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks
• Making system-wide configuration changes
• Leakage of sensitive data
• Disabling security features or products

But, you might think how does it actually work to mitigate such threat attacks? Here's how.

How Does Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management Work?

Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management operates by implementing precise access controls to manage the privileged users.

• It enables your team to assign privileges based on each user's specific role within the organization. Also, it ensures that users are granted only the minimum privileges necessary to perform their designated tasks. However, when users require access to critical assets/systems beyond their usual privileges, PEDM allows your team to temporarily elevate users' privileges for a limited duration.
• Not only that, with PEDM in place, users cannot directly access administrative accounts with root-level privileges. This setup minimizes the need for constant monitoring, reduces the potential areas vulnerable to attacks, and lessens the likelihood of errors that could harm critical systems.
• It also offers a solution known as self-service elevation that enables users to automatically acquire privileged access through their own accounts upon logging in with their usual credentials. This eliminates the waiting period, as users no longer have to request permissions and wait for days to get managerial approval. However, IT teams establish and define the privilege rights that employees can have well in advance. So, when an employee logs in or accesses an application, they are automatically granted the privileges that the IT teams have previously set without needing to request for permissions.Now that you are familiar with PEDM's significance, the problem it solves, and how it works, let's explore strategies to ensure its effective implementation. Because unless and until you effectively implement PEDM, you won't be able to reap its full benefits.

Strategies To Implement Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management

Outlined below are some of the expert-recommended strategies that help ensure the effective implementation of PEDM:

Conduct Privilege Audit

First, conduct a thorough privilege audit to evaluate how many users are in the organizations with standing privileges. Once identified, take proactive measures to eliminate or revoke these privileges, ensuring a well-secured access environment.

Implement Control Policies

Enforce granular access control policies across your organization and focus on application, service, and device levels rather than solely emphasizing on individual user accounts. By implementing control policies at these broader levels, your team can effectively manage access permissions and restrict unauthorized actions.

Additionally, ensure the segregation of regular user accounts from administrative accounts to minimize the risk of privilege abuse.

Remove Local Admin Privileges

Mitigate insider and external threats by removing local administrative privileges from user accounts. Assign default privileges to user accounts at the lowest necessary level to limit access and reduce potential vulnerabilities.

Monitor Privileged Sessions

Establish a robust monitoring system to track and log privileged sessions conducted within your organization. Regularly review and analyze session logs to detect any anomalous behavior or unauthorized actions. By monitoring privileged sessions, your team can identify trends in user behavior and make informed decisions based on specific insights.

Tackle Standing Privileges With Privilege Elevation And Delegation Management

After reading the article, you may have realized that managing privileges can be daunting, and the slightest oversight can result in severe consequences. However, with the right solution that offers privilege elevation and delegation management capabilities, these privilege risks can be tackled. One such solution is Zluri.

Zluri offers an access management solution that enables your team to manage the access rights of users within the organization effectively. It ensures the right employees hold authorized access to SaaS apps and data throughout their tenure. Furthermore, to ensure a well-governed access environment, it conducts periodic user access reviews that help your team identify access gaps and implement preventative measures to reduce the likelihood of security breaches.

Not only that, it helps enforce access control policies like PoLP, RBAC, SoD, and JIT access controls to ensure that employees hold access to only what's required for their job role and nothing beyond.

With solutions like Zluri access management, you no longer have to worry about lurking privileges that can compromise your organization's data integrity. So, put a stop to breaches by choosing the right solution for your organization.