Achieving Least Privilege Through Automated Unused Entitlement Removal

Read full article here: https://www.slashid.com/blog/automatic-least-privilege/?source=nhimg

Unused entitlements, permissions granted but never used, are a prime enabler of lateral movement and privilege escalation in cyberattacks. Yet, despite the well-known security principle of least privilege, most organizations struggle to enforce it. Microsoft estimates that 98% of tenants have at least one overprivileged identity.

The barriers are clear:

• Uptime risks — Fear that removing entitlements will break critical jobs or disrupt user productivity.

• Complex authorization systems — Especially in cloud service providers (CSPs), making initial least-privilege provisioning nearly impossible.

• Birthright creep — Roles granting excessive, function-based permissions by default.

SlashID’s Solution

SlashID tackles these challenges by combining an identity access graph with real-time audit log streaming to automatically:

1. Identify unused permissions across all supported environments (not just CSPs).

2. Generate optimized policies that remove excess access safely.

3. Continuously update entitlements without manual intervention or downtime.

Why It Outperforms Built-in CSP Analyzers

AWS and GCP analyzers have major constraints: 90-day lookback limits, lack of automation, inability to account for impersonation scenarios, and expensive, scratch-built policies. SlashID overcomes these with:

• Unlimited lookback for sporadically used permissions.

• Fully automated remediation workflows.

• Context-aware adjustments that preserve needed access while removing excess.

• Policy recommendations that reuse existing structures to save time and cost.

Proven Results

Organizations using SlashID typically see:

• 50–90% reduction in standing privileges within the first month.

• Zero unplanned downtime during entitlement cleanup.

• 10–30% savings from reclaiming unused seats and licenses.

Bottom Line

By removing unused entitlements automatically, SlashID helps organizations shrink their attack surface, reduce lateral movement risk, and enforce least privilege continuously—turning a historically manual, risky process into a safe, scalable, and cost-saving practice.