Scenario S-005 - Privilege escalation through identity platform

Element	Description
Scenario ID	S-005
Target asset	Identity Management Platform responsible for authentication and authorization services
Threat source	External attacker or malicious insider
Attack vector	Weak role-based access control configuration or compromise of privileged service accounts
Potential impact	Privilege escalation allowing administrative control over identity services and associated platforms
Likelihood	🟨 Medium - identity systems are high-value targets and RBAC misconfigurations are a common weakness
Impact rating	🟥 High - administrative access to identity services can lead to compromise of multiple platforms and accounts
Risk rating	🟥 High

Mitigation:

• Implement strict role-based access control with clearly defined privilege boundaries.
• Enforce multi-factor authentication for administrative and service accounts.
• Limit permissions assigned to service accounts following least privilege principles.
• Regularly review identity roles, permissions, and account activity.
• Monitor authentication and authorization events through centralized logging and SIEM.

Owners:

• Ops - identity infrastructure maintenance and configuration.
• Sec - access control policies, monitoring, and auditing.

References:

• ISO 27001 - Control 8.2 Privileged access rights.
• ISO 27001 - Control 8.3 Information access restriction.
• NIST CSF - PR.AC Access Control.
• NIST CSF - PR.PT Protective Technology.
• EBIOS RM - Threat scenarios involving privilege escalation via identity or access management systems.

Response actions:

• Containment - Immediately disable compromised accounts and restrict administrative access.
• Eradication - Reset affected credentials, review RBAC configurations, and remove unauthorized privileges.
• Recovery - Restore correct identity policies and verify integrity of authentication services.
• Post-incident - Conduct access review, strengthen RBAC controls, and update monitoring rules.