What is access rights management, and how is it different from access control?
Access rights management (ARM) is the overarching governance and administrative discipline that controls who can access specific digital resources and what actions they can perform. ARM focuses on the why (policy) and the who (identity life cycle). It involves systematic processes like granting the right permissions to the right users at the right time, which is crucial for security, compliance, and operational efficiency. Key practices include the principle of least privilege (PoLP), which minimizes potential damage by granting only necessary permissions, and user life cycle management, which includes managing access for new hires and departing employees across all enterprise systems.
ARM vs. access control: A key distinction
While closely related, ARM and access control focus on different phases of the access process:
ARM: The Governance Layer. ARM is the continuous life cycle of defining policies, managing roles, auditing permissions, and provisioning/deprovisioning user access rights based on the user's status. ARM answers the question "Who should have access based on policy?"
Access control: The Technical Enforcement Layer. Access control is the real-time mechanism, such as firewalls, API gateways, or OS security kernels that enforces the policy at the exact moment a resource is requested. Access control answers the question: "Is this authenticated user currently allowed to perform this action?"
How ARM works in practice
Onboarding
A new employee is automatically provisioned with a new account and granted access to necessary systems based on their role. The ARM system integrates with the HR application to trigger provisioning based on the start date.
Role-based access
User access rights are assigned to roles rather than individual users. For example, all members of the "Marketing" group can automatically get access to the marketing folder.
Offboarding
When an employee leaves, their access is immediately revoked to prevent unauthorized access to the organization's data. The ARM system ensures timely deprovisioning and revokes access across all connected applications.
Auditing
An admin can run a report to see who has access to a specific folder and review the results to identify any privilege risks.
Access request and approval
Users request access to new resources through a centralized platform. ARM orchestrates multi-level approval workflows (for example, manager approval, resource owner approval, security team review) before access is provided, ensuring all access changes are documented.
Core components of ARM
The table below outlines the foundational elements necessary for establishing an effective and compliant ARM framework:
Component | Primary function | ARM governance context |
User access policies | Defines who accesses what | The system translates these strategic, high-level policies into technical enforcement rules (Access Control Lists or Group Memberships). |
Authentication (AuthN) | Verifying user identity | Governs the adoption of strong authentication standards like MFA and FIDO2, and enforces policies for credential strength and life cycle management. It ensures the validated identity is mapped the correct roles and permissions during the authorization phase. |
Authorization (AuthZ) | Granting specific permissions | Defines and manages the organization's authorization models like RBAC or ABAC, and establishing the permissible roles and entitlements. ARM enforces segregation of duties (SoD) policies and manages the attributes and policies that feed into the real-time access decision. |
Principle of least privilege (PoLP) | Restricting access to only what is required | ARM achieves this by designing clear roles and continuous reviews to stop privilege creep. |
Life cycle management | Managing access throughout employee life cycle | Includes automated provisioning and deprovisioning, ensuring access is synchronized with HR systems. |
Auditing and reporting | Reviewing access rights and ensuring policy alignment | Audit trails provide accountability and help meet regulatory requirements like SOX, HIPAA, and the GDPR by tracking every grant, change, and revocation of access. |
Benefits of implementing a strong ARM solution
A strong ARM solution helps organizations maintain control over user permissions while improving security, compliance, and efficiency:
Security
ARM significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized access by ensuring each user has access to only their required resources. It also mitigates insider threats and misuse by limiting how much sensitive information a user can reach. Additionally, ARM provides historical access data, helping speed up investigations.
Compliance and auditing
A well-structured ARM system simplifies compliance with audit reports and documentation as required by standards like the GDPR and HIPAA. It increases visibility across the environment, helping you understand who did what, when, and where.
Operational efficiency
By automating user provisioning and deprovisioning, ARM systems speed up onboarding and offboarding processes. It significantly reduces admin load and eliminates repetitive tasks, helping IT teams focus on more crucial tasks. ARM also centralizes access policies and group management, simplifying access control and reducing the chances of errors through rule-based operations.
ARM made easy with ADManager Plus
ADManager Plus, a comprehensive identity and access management (IAM) solution for Active Directory and Microsoft 365, simplifies ARM by providing centralized control over:
User life cycle automation (JML): Automate the entire user journey, from provisioning new accounts and assigning predefined roles (Joiner) to updating permissions when roles change (Mover) and ensuring instant, complete deprovisioning upon exit (Leaver).
Role and permission auditing: Run scheduled and on-demand reports that provide deep visibility into which users and groups have access to which resources, identifying security risks, orphaned accounts, and excess privileges.
Access certification campaigns: Configure mandatory, time-bound access review campaigns where managers and resource owners must certify and approve the current user access rights of their teams, providing crucial evidence for compliance requirements like SOX, HIPAA, and the GDPR.
Workflow-driven governance: Implement multi-stage approval workflows for all access requests and permission changes. This ensures that every modification is properly reviewed, approved and documented before being applied, providing complete accountability.
Continuous least privilege: Use prebuilt templates and streamlined group management capabilities to enforce the principle of least privilege across your hybrid environment, significantly reducing the attack surface
The only access rights management software your organization needs
FAQ
1. What is the definition of access rights?
Access rights are the rules that define what a specific user, group, or system is allowed to do (like read, write, modify, and delete) with a specific resource in a computer system.
2. What is IAM in simple words?
IAM (identity and access management) is the framework of tools and processes that ensures the right individuals can access the right resources at the right time. In simple words, it manages digital identities and controls what each identity is allowed to do, helping organizations maintain security, prevent unauthorized access, and streamline user access throughout the organization.
3. How are access rights managed?
Access rights are managed through a combination of role definitions, access policies, approval workflows, and ongoing reviews. Admins assign permissions based on roles or responsibilities, update them as users change positions, and remove them when users leave. Modern organizations often rely on automated tools to provision access, enforce least privilege, perform access reviews, and maintain accurate audit trails.
4. What is an access rights manager?
An access rights manager is usually a software tool or a key component within an IAM system that provides a centralized interface for administrators to define, review, grant, revoke, and audit user access rights across the organization's resources. It provides visibility into who has access to what, detects excessive or risky permissions, automates provisioning and deprovisioning, and generates audit-ready reports. For example, ADManager Plus provides a centralized dashboard to perform all these actions and serves as an access rights manager.