# Least privilege

> Every user, service and process gets only the access the job requires — nothing more, so a compromise has a small blast radius.

The principle answers the question nobody asks until it is too late: when this account is compromised — not if — what can it reach? An automation that only needs to read invoices should not be able to delete them; a support login should not see payroll. Every extra permission is free damage handed to the attacker.

It applies everywhere: IAM roles, database users, API keys, the tool permissions an AI agent gets. The audit question is always 'what is the smallest set that still works?' — and the answer is almost always smaller than what is currently granted.

## Related terms

- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/zero-trust.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/ai-guardrails.md
- https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/threat-model.md

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Source: https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/glossary/least-privilege
DField Solutions — Dunakeszi, Hungary — dezso@dfieldsolutions.com
Booking: see https://dfieldsolutions.com/en/contact