Power Platform Security Week – Day 3: Principle of Least Privilege: Stop Giving Everyone Admin Rights!

Power Platform Security Week – Day 3: Principle of Least Privilege: Stop Giving Everyone Admin Rights!

In the world of business applications and automation, platforms like Microsoft Power Platform have enabled incredible agility — empowering many users to build apps, flows, and dashboards. But with that freedom comes risk: when too many users are given broad admin or maker rights by default, the attack surface grows, mistakes can cascade, and sensitive data or processes may be exposed. That’s why today — Day 3 of our security-week series — is focused on embracing the principle of least privilege: giving people only the access they need — and no more. The goal is simple: stop giving everyone admin rights, and start giving defined, minimal rights aligned with their job.

In this article we’ll cover why the principle matters in Power Platform, what “least privilege” means in this context, how you can put it into practice, common pitfalls to avoid, and how to keep it sustainable over time.

Why the Principle of Least Privilege Matters for Power Platform

When anyone can be an administrator, environment-maker, or has broad privileges in Power Platform, the risks multiply. Firstly, an overly-privileged user can create, modify or delete apps or flows in production that impact business operations or data integrity. They may inadvertently expose sensitive data, or introduce logic vulnerabilities. Secondly, privilege creep occurs: users accumulate rights over time that they once needed but not anymore — and those extra rights become opportunities for attackers or accidental misuse. Thirdly, admin-level access increases the “blast radius”: if a threat actor compromises an account with broad rights, the damage can span environments, apps, flows, data sources and integrations.

As the Microsoft guidance states, security and governance in Power Platform require you to “learn how to set up and maintain security” including controlling environment creation, user roles, data policies, and more.

Moreover, a broader identity-governance perspective emphasises that “assigning users and groups only the minimum level of access and permissions necessary to perform their duties” reduces risk of exploitation. When you apply these ideas in Power Platform, you reduce accidental damage, reduce the surface for malicious actors, and improve compliance and audit posture.

In short: the agility of Power Platform is a major benefit — but uncontrolled privilege is a major liability. Embracing least privilege doesn’t hamper innovation; it channels it safely.

What “Least Privilege” Means in the Power Platform Context

The principle of least privilege (POLP) is a foundational security concept: give users (or processes) the minimum permissions necessary to perform their work, and nothing more.

In the context of Power Platform, this translates into several practical controls:

• Use built-in security roles in Microsoft Dataverse (which underpins Power Platform) such as Basic User, Environment Maker, System Customizer, System Administrator — each has defined access levels.
• Ensure that users are assigned only those roles that they need tailored to their job. For example, someone who just runs apps and flows does not need full environment-maker or admin rights.
• Limit environment creation and admin rights. For example: restrain how many people hold Power Platform Administrator or System Administrator roles in the tenant / environments. Microsoft points out you should limit the more powerful roles to just a few users.
• Use “just-in-time” or time-bound elevation for tasks needing admin rights: only elevate privileges when needed, then revoke. This helps maintain low standing privileges.
• Segregate environments: e.g., separate default/personal productivity environments from production; restrict makers in production. “Don’t allow maker permissions in test and production environments” is part of Microsoft’s guidance.
• Regularly review and audit roles and assignments: as users change jobs or leave teams, privileges should shrink accordingly.

In essence: design your access model in Power Platform so that each user, flow, environment, and resource is guarded by the minimal effective rights. Anything more and you’re increasing risk unnecessarily.

How to Implement Least Privilege in Practice

Putting this into action in your organisation will require a mix of governance, configuration, monitoring and culture-change. Here are key steps to consider:

Define roles and responsibilities Start by cataloguing what users actually need to do within Power Platform: who builds apps, who consumes them, who modifies flows, who just runs them, who administers environments, and so on. Map these to security roles in Dataverse and Power Platform. Use built-in roles where appropriate and create custom roles only when necessary. For example, the “Basic User” built-in role may suffice for many users.

Restrict creation and admin privileges Ensure that only a small set of trusted individuals hold the highest privileges: environment creators, system/customizer, system administrators. In many organisations you may want only a handful of Power Platform admins, and the rest of the users have far more constrained privileges. Rename and restrict the “Default Environment” to avoid it becoming a free-for-all.

Apply access controls with RBAC and groups Use Azure AD / Microsoft Entra groups to manage membership for Power Platform roles rather than assigning roles individually. Use role-based access control (RBAC) to align permissions with job functions. Microsoft explicitly says: “Implement role-based access control (RBAC) to assign permissions based on the principle of least privilege.”

Segregate environments and limit data access Production, development, test environments should be clearly separated. Makers may develop in personal or test environments but shouldn’t have broad rights in production. Dataverse’s security model (with tables, columns, and business units) allows granular access to data rather than all-or-nothing.

Monitor, review and adjust regularly Set up periodic reviews of who has which roles, see who has made changes, who has not used privileges, and revoke excessive rights. Use audit logs, analytics dashboards of Power Platform admin centre, and governance tooling (for example, flow that alerts when broad sharing occurs).

Educate and enforce culture The best technology controls still fail if people don’t understand them. Communicate policy: why only some should be admins, what sharing means, why you’re restricting rights. Inform makers and users of their responsibilities. Build your CoE (Center of Excellence) to champion good behaviour.

By treating least privilege as both a design principle and a living practice, you can keep your Power Platform deployment secure while still enabling innovation.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Even with the best intentions, organisations fall into traps when implementing least privilege. Here are some of the most common ones — plus how to avoid them:

Giving “maker” or admin rights to everyone Often in the name of agility, it’s tempting to allow broad rights so users aren’t constrained. But the result is chaos: uncontrolled apps, flows, data silos, security risk. Avoid this: limit maker/admin roles to well-defined groups and ensure others are set up as consumers or limited builders.

Overlooking shadow environments or default ones The default environment in Power Platform often becomes a catch-all where everyone builds. Microsoft warns: assign admin roles judiciously and control the default environment. Segregate environments and ensure the default isn’t a production playground.

Allowing broad sharing and access without oversight Sharing apps or flows with “Everyone” or large groups undermines least privilege. It’s easy to forget sharing is itself a permission escalation. Microsoft recommends limiting sharing and reviewing run-only permissions in Power Automate.

Privilege creep and stale access People change roles, move teams, leave the organisation — but may keep old rights. Without regular review you end up with users having far more access than required. Make access review part of your governance process.

Mixing admin rights with normal user activities Admins sometimes use their high-privilege accounts for everyday tasks, increasing risk. A best practice is to have separate accounts: one low-privilege for day-to-day, one that is elevated only when needed. This is core to least privilege.

By being aware of these pitfalls and actively working around them, you’ll keep the principle of least privilege effective rather than symbolic.

Keeping Least Privilege Sustainable Over Time

Implementing least privilege is not a one-time setup; it’s an ongoing commitment. Here’s how to keep it alive and meaningful:

Automate reviews and alerts Set up alerts for when someone is added to a high-privilege role, or when an environment creator is changed, or when a flow is shared broadly. Use analytics and dashboards in the Power Platform admin centre to spot anomalies.

Embed in your governance framework Make least privilege a standard part of your Power Platform governance playbook. At environment creation, role assignment, sharing, app deployment, and de-commissioning — ask “Does this follow least privilege?” Define roles, responsibilities, processes around inflow.

Use just-in-time and eligibility based access Rather than always granting high privileges, use tools like Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management (PIM) to make users eligible for elevated roles and require activation when needed. Automatically remove rights after the work is done.

Stay aligned with business changes As teams, responsibilities, technology usage and business units change, the access-model must evolve. Regularly revisit your role-definitions, map to current business functions, retire obsolete roles or environments.

Promote a culture of minimalism Encourage developers, makers, business users to design apps and flows with least privilege in mind. For example: use run-only sharing rather than full co-owner rights in a flow. When designers ask “What rights do I really need?” you build a mindset where minimalism becomes routine rather than constraint.

By making least privilege a continuous practice — not just a checkbox — you’ll sustain a secure, agile Power Platform environment.

Summary

The power of the Microsoft Power Platform lies in its ability to empower many users, build fast, and automate processes at scale. But with that power comes responsibility: uncontrolled privileges undermine security, increase risk, and can lead to costly incidents. The principle of least privilege gives us a clear compass: grant only the rights needed, keep the rest locked down, monitor continuously, and review often.

If you stop giving everyone admin rights and start thinking carefully about "who needs what when", you'll reduce the attack surface, protect your data and your business processes — and still unlock the full potential of Power Platform. Treat least privilege not as an obstacle to innovation, but as the guardrail that makes safe innovation possible.

Source: Power Platform Security Week – Day 3: Principle of Least Privilege: Stop Giving Everyone Admin Rights!