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Least privilege

The principle of granting only the access needed for a defined role, task, and time.

In practice

In production SaaS, least privilege means IdP groups grant the minimum roles needed for each job function — engineers cannot browse all tenant data by default, and support access is time-boxed and ticket-linked rather than standing admin.

Common confusion

Least privilege is not equivalent to zero access; it requires justified, bounded access.

Related controls

Framework versions referenced in this page:

Last verified: August 2026 · Primary sources linked above