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Concepts

The Just-In-Time Privilege Elevation Procurement Process

Andrios Robert

• 1 min read

The request came in at 3:07 a.m. A critical deployment was stuck. The pipeline was ready. The code was clean. But the database required elevated access. No one wanted a standing admin account sitting idle, waiting to be exploited. The answer was Just-In-Time Privilege Elevation.

The Just-In-Time Privilege Elevation Procurement Process removes permanent high-level access from your stack. Instead, it authorizes the minimum elevation needed, at the exact moment it’s required, and for only as long as necessary. This cuts the attack surface. It also eliminates the risk of stale credentials living past their purpose.

Procurement in this context isn’t about buying hardware. It’s about securing the workflow. The process must request elevation through a controlled channel, verify identity, log every action, and automatically revoke access once the job is done. Every request passes through approval logic. Every approval is bound by policy.

An optimized procurement process for Just-In-Time Privilege Elevation has five steps:

  1. Trigger – A task signals the need for elevated rights.
  2. Request – A formal request is generated inside the secured system.
  3. Validate – Multi-factor checks confirm who is asking and their role.
  4. Grant – Access is elevated, scoped to the exact resource, and set to expire fast.
  5. Audit – Logs record all actions for compliance and review.

Running this process at speed demands automation. Static admin accounts are a liability. Automated JIT elevation cuts manual delays without trading security for velocity. Integrating the procurement workflow with CI/CD pipelines means privileged actions happen as part of the flow, not outside it.

Security teams want proof. Engineers want speed. The Just-In-Time Privilege Elevation Procurement Process delivers both. It enforces least privilege, reduces dwell time for elevated access to minutes or seconds, and leaves a clean audit trail.

You can set this up without rethinking your entire system. See it live in minutes at hoop.dev.