Admin Credentials for Users

Within Information and Communications Technology (ICT) administration, "Administrator/Admin" credentials grant a very high level of permissions on a system. This level of access grants an administrator the flexibility to do anything on a system and if an attacker or user with malicious intent obtained this access, they could cause great harm to your network. Critical systems could be disabled, malicious actions executed or sensitive data compromised. 

Certainly, in some cases this level of access may be justified but, 'Full' system wide access should be the exception, not the norm. Any time a system administrator account is used, it’s best to have a specific function or purpose in mind. The administrator should be granted ‘Just Enough’ permissions to perform this job.

Inline with the National Cyber Security Centre recommendations, Lineal advise to use a model entitled Privileged Access Management (PAM) which couples 'Just in Time' with 'Just Enough' Permissions.

If you find that Administrator permissions are required then we are more than happy to connect remotely to complete that task. For occasions where elevated permissions are required for a longer period of time then we would need to run through an Approval Process with the named contact on your support contract to look at the most secure options. The Approval Process ensures that requests for credentials that would allow an attacker to cause a large amount of damage to be carefully considered.

Please raise or update your ticket if you need to start the Approval Process for elevated permissions.

References and further reading:

• NCSC: Secure system administration 
• NCSC: What is PAM?
• NIST: Security and Privacy Controls for Information Systems and Organizations
• CIS Critical Security Control 6: Access Control Management