Least privilege
The security practice of granting each person, process, or credential only the access required for its current job and no more.
What it is
Least privilege reduces the damage a compromised credential can cause by narrowing its permissions, scope, data reach, and lifetime. It is more than choosing a read-only label: access should be specific to the task, separated between environments, reviewed as needs change, and removed when the task ends.
How it relates to Orbit
Orbit limits sensitive tools for project agents and requires individual approval for Security fix previews. See /docs/concepts/security/ for details.
When you would use it
You apply least privilege whenever you issue or review credentials, because limiting their blast radius makes mistakes and leaks easier to contain.
Common operations
- Giving an integration only the API scopes and repository permissions it actually needs.
- Pairing narrow permissions with short-lived credentials, rotation, and revocation.