Principle of least privilege - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In information security, computer science, and other fields, the principle of least privilege (also known as the principle of minimal privilege or the principle of least authority) requires that in a particular abstraction layer of a computing environment, every module (such as a process, a user, or a program, depending on the subject) must be able to access only the information and resources that are necessary for its legitimate purpose. For example, a backup user does not need to install software: hence, the backup user has rights only to run backup and backup- related applications. Any other privileges, such as installing new software, are blocked. The principle applies also to a personal computer user who usually does work in a normal user account, and opens a privileged, password protected account (that is, a superuser) only when the situation absolutely demands it. ![]() When applied to users, the terms least user access or least- privileged user account (LUA) are also used, referring to the concept that all user accounts at all times should run with as few privileges as possible, and also launch applications with as few privileges as possible. Software bugs may be exposed when applications do not work correctly without elevated privileges. The principle of least privilege is widely recognized as an important design consideration in enhancing the protection of data and functionality from faults (fault tolerance) and malicious behavior (computer security). Benefits of the principle include: Better system stability. When code is limited in the scope of changes it can make to a system, it is easier to test its possible actions and interactions with other applications. In practice for example, applications running with restricted rights will not have access to perform operations that could crash a machine, or adversely affect other applications running on the same system. Better system security. When code is limited in the system- wide actions it may perform, vulnerabilities in one application cannot be used to exploit the rest of the machine. For example, Microsoft states . ![]() In general, the fewer privileges an application requires the easier it is to deploy within a larger environment. This usually results from the first two benefits, applications that install device drivers or require elevated security privileges typically have additional steps involved in their deployment, for example on Windows a solution with no device drivers can be run directly with no installation, while device drivers must be installed separately using the Windows installer service in order to grant the driver elevated privileges. As program complexity increases at an exponential rate, so do the number of potential issues, rendering a predictive approach impractical. ![]() Examples include the values of variables it may process, addresses it will need, or the precise time such things will be required. Object capability systems allow, for instance, deferring granting a single- use privilege until the time when it will be used. Currently, the closest practical approach is to eliminate privileges that can be manually evaluated as unnecessary. The resulting set of privileges typically exceeds the true minimum required privileges for the process. Another limitation is the granularity of control that the operating environment has over privileges for an individual process. Denning, in his paper .
![]() One of the principal responsibilities of an operating system, particularly a multi- user operating system, is management of the hardware's availability and requests to access it from running processes. When the kernel crashes, the mechanisms by which it maintains state also fail. Even if there is a way for the CPU to recover without a hard reset, the code that resumes execution is not always what it should be. Security continues to be enforced, but the operating system cannot respond to the failure properly because detection of the failure was not possible. This is because kernel execution either halted or the program counter resumed execution from somewhere in endless, and. The principle of least privilege forces code to run with the lowest privilege/permission level possible so that, in the event this occurs. One method used to accomplish this can be implemented in the microprocessor hardware. In the Intel x. 86 architecture, the manufacturer designed four (ring 0 through ring 3) running . Such privilege sets are inherited from the parent as determined by the semantics of fork(). An executable file that performs a privileged function. The inheritance of file privileges by a process are determined by the semantics of the exec() family of system calls. The precise manner in which potential process privileges, actual process privileges, and file privileges interact can become complex. In practice, least privilege is practiced by forcing a process to run with only those privileges required by the task. Adherence to this model is quite complex as well as error- prone. Similar principles. Least privilege has also been interpreted in the context of distribution of discretionary access control (DAC) permissions, for example asserting that giving user U read/write access to file F violates least privilege if U can complete his authorized tasks with only read permission. See also. Retrieved 1. Mar 2. 01. 3. 3. 43- 3. Barnum & Gegick 2. Do you know how to open an elevated command prompt in Windows 7? If you don’t, then read on to find out what an elevated command prompt is. The Security Options section of Group Policy configures computer security settings for digital data signatures, Administrator and Guest account names, access to floppy disk and CD drives, driver installation behavior, and. Saltzer, Jerome H. Communications of the ACM. Fall Joint Computer Conference, AFIPS Conf. Schneider, Least Privilege and More.
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