Tag: EverydayIdentity

Editor’s Note (September 2025): This guide is aligned to the latest NIST publications issued last month, including SP 800-53 Release 5.2.0 (with new software-update/patch and cyber-resiliency emphasis) and SP 800-63 Revision 4 (updated Digital Identity Guidelines). We also reference the SP 1800-35 Zero Trust practice guide finalized this summer to ground CIEM in current best practice. :contentReference[oaicite:0]{index=0}

TL;DR

Multi-cloud is powerful—and dangerously permissive by default. Over time, identities (humans and workloads) accumulate access they no longer need. That “permissions creep” expands your blast radius and quietly defeats Zero Trust. Cloud Entitlement Management (CIEM) fixes this by discovering every identity and permission across AWS, Azure, and GCP, right-sizing access to least privilege, then continuously monitoring and remediating drift. In this post, you’ll get:

  • A plain-English explainer of CIEM and why it exists.
  • How each cloud helps you right-size (AWS IAM Access Analyzer, Microsoft Entra Permissions Management, Google IAM Recommender).
  • A practical 90-day CIEM rollout plan, with metrics, owners, and guardrails.
  • A buyer’s checklist if you’re comparing native features vs. CIEM platforms.
  • A copy-paste “Right-Sizing Runbook” you can start using this week.

Why “permissions creep” is inevitable in cloud

Cloud projects move fast. New teams, new apps, new pipelines. We grant broader access “to get it working,” promising to tighten later. People change roles. Services get decommissioned. But the permissions remain. Over months, an identity’s scope grows from “just what’s needed” to “way more than necessary.”

Add multi-cloud and you multiply the problem: three different IAM models, different role vocabularies, different logging and policy tools, and hundreds of services evolving weekly. Without a dedicated entitlement practice, your estate skews steadily away from least privilege—undermining Zero Trust’s requirement to “always verify” and minimize access. NIST’s Zero Trust practice guide reinforces continuous verification and least privilege as operational pillars. :contentReference[oaicite:1]{index=1}

What is CIEM (aka CEM), really?

Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) is a discipline—and a product category—focused on identity-centric risk across cloud platforms. Think of it as “X-ray vision” for who (or what) can do what, where, and why—plus the automation to right-size it and keep it right-sized over time.

Core capabilities to expect:

  1. Multicloud inventory & identity graph – one map of all human and workload identities across AWS/Azure/GCP, their roles/policies, effective permissions, and resource reachability.
  2. Excess/unused permission detection – find what hasn’t been used (services, actions) and where entitlements are broader than necessary.
  3. Right-sizing & policy generation – derive least-privilege roles from observed usage and validate with simulators before rollout.
  4. JIT (just-in-time) / time-bound elevation – replace standing admin; gate rare, risky actions.
  5. Continuous monitoring & drift remediation – alert or auto-fix when access grows again.
  6. Evidence & reporting – prove least-privilege to auditors and risk committees.

Cloud-native least-privilege helpers (and where each shines)

AWS

  • IAM Access Analyzer and “last accessed” data surface unused permissions and help refine policies; policy validation tools catch risky patterns before deployment.
  • Guardrails: Organizations SCPs to cap blast radius; resource policies; CloudTrail/Detective to verify outcomes.

Microsoft Azure

  • Microsoft Entra Permissions Management (CIEM) discovers, right-sizes, and monitors excessive permissions across Azure, AWS, and GCP; it complements Entra PIM’s JIT elevation.
  • Guardrails: Azure Policy and Defender for Cloud to enforce constraints and surface CIEM findings.

Google Cloud

  • IAM Recommender proposes narrower, usage-based roles (including custom roles); Policy Simulator tests changes safely before rollout.
  • Guardrails: Organization Policies to prevent broad basic roles and restrict risky services.

Bottom line: Each cloud provides strong building blocks. CIEM ties them together, normalizes identity/permission data, and orchestrates right-sizing at scale across providers.

The CIEM maturity quick-check (5 questions)

Score yourself 0–2 on each:

  1. Inventory & Visibility – Do you have a single list of identities (humans + workloads), mapped to effective permissions, across all clouds?
  2. Usage-based Right-Sizing – Do you regularly remove unused services/actions based on observed usage?
  3. JIT & Time-Bound Privilege – Is standing admin access the exception, not the norm?
  4. Guardrails & Policy-as-Code – Are SCPs/Azure Policy/Org Policies in place to prevent broad permissions from reappearing?
  5. Continuous Monitoring & Evidence – Can you prove least privilege (reports, alerts, tickets) month over month?

0–3 = Foundational; 4–6 = Emerging; 7–8 = Operational; 9–10 = Optimized.

The 12-step CIEM playbook (90 days to noticeable risk reduction)

Day 1–10: Baseline & blast-radius map

  1. Consolidate identity inventory; 2) tag high-value assets (HVAs); 3) build the identity graph (who/what → can do → where) to HVAs.

Day 11–25: Quick wins
4) Stop the bleeding with org-level guardrails (SCP/Azure Policy/Org Policies) to block wildcards like *:* and broad owner/editor roles in prod.
5) Right-size low-risk targets at scale using usage data (AWS last-accessed, Google Recommender, Entra Permissions insights).
6) Kill dormant & orphaned identities (stale keys, unused service principals) and enforce rotation cadences.

Day 26–45: JIT & approvals
7) Eliminate standing admin via JIT elevation with approvals and session recording (e.g., Entra PIM in Azure; parallel patterns for AWS/GCP).
8) Time-bound third-party and cross-account access with short-lived, narrowly scoped roles.

Day 46–70: Automate guardrails
9) Policy validation & simulation in CI (AWS policy checks; GCP Policy Simulator). Block merges on risky patterns.
10) Pipe recommendations → tickets with owners and SLAs.

Day 71–90: Prove and sustain
11) Measure, report, repeat (unused-permission reduction, count of super-identities, standing-admin time).
12) Codify exceptions (break-glass roles) with business justification and review cadence.

Metrics that matter (and impress auditors)

  • % identities with least-privilege baseline (usage-validated in last 90 days)
  • # super-identities (cross-cloud, high blast-radius) and trend to zero
  • Standing admin time (hours/day across all identities)
  • Mean time to right-size after detection (days)
  • Policy drift rate (regressions per month)
  • Coverage (tenants/accounts/projects under CIEM monitoring)

Patterns for success

  • Human + workload parity. Workload identities now outnumber humans in many estates—treat them as first-class citizens in least-privilege programs.
  • Right-size from observed usage. Start with reality (last-accessed/recommender), then validate with simulators before rollout.
  • Shift-left policy. Validate entitlement diffs as part of CI/CD; don’t ship wildcards.
  • Make JIT the default. CIEM + PIM removes standing privilege and supports Zero Trust least-privilege.

Anti-patterns (learned the hard way)

  • “One big owner” roles for convenience → massive blast radius later.
  • Right-sizing without owners → no follow-through.
  • Ignoring service accounts → stale keys with broad roles.
  • No guardrails → wildcards return.

A worked example: right-sizing a production support engineer

Context:

  • AWS: Engineer has PowerUserAccess via group membership.
  • Azure: User is Contributor on two prod subscriptions.
  • GCP: User is Editor at the project level.

Approach:

  1. Observe usage (14–30 days) via AWS last-accessed data and GCP Recommender; log support actions in tickets.
  2. Propose minimum roles (logs read, restart instances, trigger pipelines) and validate with AWS/GCP simulators.
  3. Add JIT elevation for rare tasks (e.g., snapshot deletes) with approvals (PIM or equivalent).
  4. Guard with org-level policy to prevent future wildcards.

Result: Same job done, far smaller blast radius, with audit-ready evidence.

Buy vs. build: native features or a CIEM platform?

Go native if you’re early in the journey, single-cloud, or primarily need tactical right-sizing on a handful of accounts/projects (AWS Access Analyzer + “last accessed,” Entra PIM + Permissions Management, GCP IAM Recommender/Policy Simulator).

Consider a CIEM platform when you need: multicloud normalization, a scalable identity graph, automated right-sizing workflows (with approvals/tickets), cross-cloud guardrails/policy-as-code, and exec-level reporting.

What’s new from NIST (August–September 2025) and why it matters here

  • SP 800-53 Release 5.2.0 (Aug 27, 2025): Adds controls and enhancements that tighten software-update hygiene and cyber-resiliency by design (e.g., SA-24 Design for Cyber Resiliency, SI-2(07) Root Cause Analysis). Baselines in SP 800-53B were not changed, so your existing least-privilege mappings (e.g., AC-2/AC-3/AC-6) remain valid. For CIEM programs, this underscores the need to validate entitlement changes in pipelines and tie right-sizing to safe rollout/rollback practices. :contentReference[oaicite:2]{index=2}

  • SP 800-63 Revision 4 (Aug 2025): Refreshes Digital Identity Guidelines across proofing, authentication, and federation. When your CIEM touches workforce access (role design, JIT, authenticator policy), reference Rev.4 requirements and recommendations for assurance, lifecycle, and federation assertions. :contentReference[oaicite:3]{index=3}

  • SP 1800-35 (June 2025): Final Zero Trust practice guide from NCCoE with end-to-end reference implementations. CIEM directly supports its least-privilege and continuous verification patterns. :contentReference[oaicite:4]{index=4}

Takeaway: CIEM is not an island. Map your right-sizing, JIT, and policy-as-code practices to these publications to keep your program aligned with current federal guidance—and to demonstrate leadership and diligence to auditors, boards, and customers.

The CIEM right-sizing runbook (copy/paste)

  1. Pick a bounded scope (one prod account/subscription/project + top 10 apps).
  2. Export 30 days of usage (AWS last-accessed, GCP Recommender; Entra insights).
  3. Draft least-privilege policies from observed actions.
  4. Validate (AWS policy checks; GCP Policy Simulator).
  5. Roll out to a pilot group with rollback.
  6. Enable JIT elevation for rare tasks (PIM or equivalent).
  7. Monitor & measure (auto-tickets for denied actions; weekly review).
  8. Scale horizontally (next account/subscription) and vertically (service accounts).
  9. Codify guardrails (SCP/Azure Policy/Org Policies).
  10. Publish evidence (monthly least-privilege + drift reports).

Conclusion

Multi-cloud velocity without disciplined entitlements is a slow-motion breach. CIEM gives you the visibility and automation to keep identities—human and workload—on a strict, measurable diet of least privilege. Start with your highest-risk accounts, lean on the clouds’ native analyzers and simulators, and wire the loop closed with JIT elevation, guardrails, and tickets. Do that, and you’ll shrink your blast radius month after month—while staying aligned to the latest NIST guidance and leading the conversation on modern cloud access risk. :contentReference[oaicite:5]{index=5}