Privileged Access

Owned by David Doret
Last updated: 06-31-2021 by David Doret (Open Measure)
2 min read

Summary

The objective of this article is to document existing privileged access taxonomies and typologies and possibly to develop a new one that is operationally adequate to support the PAM processes of organizations.

Table of Contents

[ 1 Summary ] [ 2 Table of Contents ] [ 3 Classification ] [ 4 Classification Objectives ] [ 5 Existing Classifications ] [ 6 Defining the Population under Study ] [ 7 Dimensions ] [ 8 Bibliography ] [ 9 Related Pages ]

Classification

For an introduction to classification, please refer to An introduction to classifications, taxonomies and typologies.

Classification Objectives

Considering a classification of privileged accesses, the following objective is proposed:

The purpose of the privileged access classification is to facilitate the operational management and supervision of privileged access by organizations in such a way as to help organizations meet their PAM / TAM goals.

Existing Classifications

Include literature review on privileged and technical access definitions.

Source

Dimensions

Classes

Source

Dimensions

Classes

KPMG, 2018

  • Risk

  • # of users

  • Privileged (Managed by PAM Solution)

    • Domain Admins

    • Database, Infrastructure, Platform Admins

    • Application Admins

  • Powerful (Managed by IAG Solution)

    • Application Super Users, Database Users, Platform Remote Access Users

  • Regular (Managed by IAG Solution)

    • Standard Application Users

Defining the Population under Study

What is it that we are trying to classify?

Provide here a clear definition of privileged access in the context of this particular note.
Include def of pseudo-identities, partial identities and secrets

Dimensions

By definition, a classification must be based on observable properties of population being studied.

List candidate dimensions
Mention the extent to which dimension categories are mutually exclusive

  • Entities using the access (e.g.: Gartner taxonomy)

    • by people

    • by software

      • by dedicated person or shared among multiple persons

  • Entities using the access (2)

    • by technical people

    • by business people

  • Genesis

    • by system (e.g. “native” accounts)

    • by people (“users” created by admins)

  • Scope of privilege

    • Single system

    • Limited set of systems (e.g. cluster admins)

    • Pervasive in the IS (e.g. domain admins)

  • Operational constraints

    • Can be deactivated or not

    • Can be renamed or not

    • Can be…

  • Level of operational risks

    • This is organization specific

  • Software stack level

    • OS

    • Middleware

    • Application

    • Others (e.g. hypervisor)

  • IAM superpowers including impersonation

    • None

    • May impersonate some other identities

    • May create other identities

    • May modify other identities, including granting and revoking accesses

    • …

User Access MAnagement va Privileged Access Management

User Access Management versus Technical Access Management

User Access Management versus Secret Management

Propose candidate classifications

Bibliography

Related Pages

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