IAM · Identity and Access Management
IAM-06 Privileged Access Rights
Changed since C5:2020 · formerly IDM-06
Basic criterion
Added requirement regarding access to anonymous technical users.
Added requirement regarding privileged access to containers and images.
Added requirement regarding the use of multi-factor authentication for accessing administration interfaces.
Additional criterion
Additional criterion newly included.
Wording in C5:2020
Basic criterion
Privileged access rights for internal and external employees as well as technical users of the Cloud Service Provider are assigned and changed in accordance to the policy for managing user accounts and access rights (cf. IDM-01) or a separate specific policy.
Privileged access rights are personalised, limited in time according to a risk assessment and assigned as necessary for the execution of tasks ("need-to-know principle"). Technical users are assigned to internal or external employees of the Cloud Service Provider.
Activities of users with privileged access rights are logged in order to detect any misuse of privileged access in suspicious cases. The logged information is automatically monitored for defined events that may indicate misuse. When such an event is identified, the responsible personnel are automatically informed so that they can promptly assess whether misuse has occurred and take corresponding action. In the event of proven misuse of privileged access rights, disciplinary measures are taken in accordance with HR-04.
Supplementary information on all sub-criteria
Privileged access rights in the sense of the criterion are those that enable personnel of the cloud service provider to perform any of the following activities:
- Read or write access to the cloud service customers data processed, stored or transmitted in the cloud service, unless such data is encrypted or the encryption can be deactivated for access by the cloud service provider; and
- Changes to the operational and/or security configuration of the system components in the production environment, in particular the starting, stopping, deleting or deactivating of system components, if this can affect the confidentiality, integrity or availability of the cloud service customers data (also indirectly, e.g. by deactivating the logging and monitoring of security-relevant events).
Basic criterion
Privileged access rights for internal and external personnel as well as technical users of the cloud service provider are assigned and changed in accordance with the policy for managing identities and access rights (cf. IAM-01) or a separate specific policy.
Privileged access rights are personalised, limited in time according to a risk assessment and assigned as necessary for the execution of tasks ('need-to-know-principle').
Anonymous technical users are only accessed through authentication with a personalised identitiy.
Activities of users with privileged access rights are logged in order to detect any misuse of privileged access in suspicious cases.
The logged information is automatically monitored for defined events that may indicate misuse.
When such an event is identified, the responsible personnel is automatically informed so that they can timely assess whether misuse has occurred and take corresponding action.
Supplementary information
Responsible personnel for events that may indicate misuse can be e.g. the personnel of the cloud service provider's security operations centre.
Misused privileged access rights can be treated e.g. as a security incident, cf. SIM-01.
In the event of proven misuse of privileged access rights, disciplinary measures are taken in accordance with HR-04.
For containers and images, activities of users with privileged access are logged according to OPS-10.
Access to the cloud service provider's administration interfaces requires the use of multi-factor authentication.
Additional criterion
IAM-06.01AC
Additional, complementingThe cloud service provider maintains an inventory of the identities with privileged access rights under its responsibility. This inventory is kept up-to-date.
IAM-06.02AC
Additional, complementingThe cloud service provider maintains a list of the personnel that is responsible for an identity assigned to a non-human entity within the cloud service provider's scope of responsibility. This list is reviewed every six months and in case of significant changes to the cloud service.
Supplementary information
If a review is caused by significant changes to the cloud service, only the parts of the list that are affected by the change need to be included in the review.
IAM-06.03AC
Additional, complementingFor privileged users, phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication such as FIDO2 security keys or comparable mechanisms using public key cryptography and domain binding are implemented.
IAM-06.04AC
Additional, complementingPrivileged access rights are enforced through a privileged access management (PAM) solution with support for 'just-in-time' elevation and 'just-enough' access.
Related criteria
BSI text from C5:2026 and its changelog: © Federal Office for Information Security 2026, reproduced unchanged under CC BY-ND 4.0. Unofficial site, not affiliated with BSI. Licence and sources