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08/06/2026 5:02 pm
TL;DR: Privilege elevation and delegation management limits privileged exposure by granting just-in-time access, revoking it after use, and reducing standing admin rights, according to StrongDM’s PEDM explainer. The security value is real, but only when access requests, privilege scope, logging, and lifecycle controls are disciplined enough to prevent temporary access from becoming permanent risk.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by StrongDM: Privilege Elevation and Delegation Management (PEDM) Explained
By the numbers:
- 80% of data breaches stem from the misuse of privileged access.
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface.
- Only 5.7% of organisations have full visibility into their service accounts.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams implement just-in-time privileged access without creating new risk?
A: Start by limiting elevation to specific tasks, approved roles, and short durations, then make revocation automatic at task completion.
Q: Why do standing admin privileges create so much operational risk?
A: Standing admin rights create risk because they remain available long after the original need has passed.
Q: What breaks when privileged access is not tied to lifecycle management?
A: Access drift becomes the default.
Practitioner guidance
- Map every privileged path Inventory where elevated access is currently delivered through shared accounts, manual approvals, or permanent admin roles.
- Separate elevation from session supervision Use PEDM for task-scoped privilege assignment and reserve session monitoring for exceptional shared-account use cases.
- Bind privilege to lifecycle checks Reconcile privileged entitlements whenever users change roles, teams, or responsibilities.
What's in the full article
StrongDM's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Step-by-step description of how PEDM grants temporary privilege through a user’s own account.
- The article’s comparison of PEDM and PASM for teams deciding between elevation control and shared-session brokering.
- Implementation notes on automatic privilege termination after a task completes.
- Best-practice discussion of auditing, logging, and access-insight reporting for privileged accounts.
👉 Read StrongDM's explanation of privilege elevation and delegation management →
PEDM, just-in-time privilege, and what IAM teams should change?
Explore further
08/06/2026 6:59 pm
Standing privilege is the wrong baseline for both human admins and non-human identities. PEDM only makes sense because permanent elevation turns a task into a durable entitlement. That is the same structural problem we see in service accounts, API keys, and delegated admin flows, where access outlives the action that justified it. The practitioner conclusion is that privilege should be treated as a time-bounded state, not an identity property.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 97% of NHIs carry excessive privileges, increasing unauthorised access and broadening the attack surface, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
- Only 20% have formal processes for offboarding and revoking API keys, and even fewer have procedures for rotating them, according to Ultimate Guide to NHIs.
A question worth separating out:
Q: Should organisations use PEDM instead of privileged session management?
A: Not necessarily. PEDM and privileged session management solve different problems. PEDM constrains who receives elevation and for how long, while session management supervises what happens inside a privileged session. Many environments need both, especially when rare break-glass access and routine task-based elevation coexist.
👉 Read our full editorial: Privilege elevation and delegation management can shrink access risk
