Zero Standing Privileges: The End of Always-On Admin Rights

Why the cloud forces a hard rethink of privileged access and why Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP) is the new minimum.

Always-On Access Is Always a Problem

In traditional environments, giving an admin standing access felt convenient. They needed it, right?

In the cloud, that model is a walking liability.

Every always-on credential, role, or key is a dormant security breach waiting to be exploited—by a bad actor, a bot, or even an over-permissioned script. The more dynamic your environment, the more dangerous those dormant privileges become.

Enter Zero Standing Privileges (ZSP).

This isn’t a buzzword. It’s a mindset shift—and a critical cloud security control.

What ZSP Really Means

Zero Standing Privileges means:

• No identity—human or machine—has default privileged access
  
  
• Access is granted just-in-time, for only as long as needed, with clear boundaries
  
  
• Everything is approved, time-bound, auditable, and revocable
  
  

Think of it like a hotel key card: it works for the right room, for the right guest, for a set amount of time. After checkout? Dead key.

That’s how privileged access should work.

Why ZSP Is a Game-Changer in the Cloud

✅ Breaks the attack chain

If there’s no standing access to steal, attackers have to work a lot harder—and most stop trying.

✅ Minimizes insider risk

Privileged actions are time-boxed and tied to business need. Less room for accidents or abuse.

✅ Shrinks the blast radius

Even if a session is hijacked, the damage is confined to what was approved—no open back doors.

✅ Aligns with Zero Trust

“Never trust, always verify” isn’t a slogan—it’s enforced through policy and automation.

Does ZSP Kill Productivity? Only If You Do It Wrong

A lot of teams hear “ZSP” and assume it means extra red tape.

The reality? Modern CPAM automates this.

At IVI, we embed Zero Standing Privileges into:

• Dev workflows (think: Slack, Jira, CLI requests)
  
  
• CI/CD tools (short-lived roles for pipeline actions)
  
  
• Contractor/on-call access (no more zombie accounts)

With policy-based approvals and smart integrations, your team moves faster—with less risk, not more friction.

This Is Bigger Than Just Security

Zero Standing Privileges isn’t just a check-the-box control. It improves:

• Audit readiness: Clear records of who had access, when, and why.
  
  
• Developer agility: No more waiting on security to grant broad access.
  
  
• Operational hygiene: No lingering accounts or forgotten roles.
  
  
• Executive confidence: You’re building a system that assumes breach and minimizes impact.

What’s Next: How Just-in-Time Access Makes ZSP Real

ZSP is the goal. Just-in-Time (JIT) access is how you get there.

In the next post, we’ll break down how JIT works in practice, and how CPAM makes it automatic, reliable, and fast enough for any cloud team.

→ Want to see how ZSP looks in your environment? Let’s do a quick visibility scan!