Despite major investments in cybersecurity, organizations continue to face breaches. Most security mechanisms implemented guard against threats such as password theft. However, there is a growing concern with the unchecked expansion of user access, permissions, and tokens across apps, clouds, and systems.
This growing challenge is known as authorization sprawl, and it is becoming one of the most dangerous and least visible threats in modern enterprise security.
According to insights from the SANS keynote at the RSAC 2025 Conference, attackers are increasingly exploiting this sprawl to gain legitimate, persistent access that bypasses multifactor authentication (MFA), security information and event management (SIEM) alerts, and endpoint detection and response (EDR) visibility altogether.
What is Authorization Sprawl?
Authorization sprawl occurs when access permissions multiply uncontrollably across systems, users, and applications. Every time a team or department adds a new SaaS integration, service account, or API key, another layer of permission is introduced.
In an attempt to make access to multiple applications easy, users also have single sign-on (SSO), designed to help log in once and access multiple applications securely. Here, users are granted access to several connected systems through SSO, adding to the authorization sprawl problem.
Over time, all these factors create a complex ecosystem that even security teams have a hard time tracing who can access what.
Unlike authentication, which verifies who someone is, authorization determines what one can do. When permissions expand without review, attackers take advantage of forgotten tokens, dormant accounts, or outdated roles to move freely inside systems.
Why Traditional Defenses Miss It
Most defenses focus on identity verification, such as MFA, conditional access, and endpoint protection. But once a user is authenticated, there is no monitoring. This is the blind spot that attackers exploit. Instead of breaking in, they log in using legitimate session tokens, application programming interface (API) keys, or open authorization (OAuth) grants.
The misuse of valid credentials or access tokens enables cloud-related breaches. These attacks bypass traditional detection tools because they appear to be normal activity by authorized users.
A recent incident involving Salesloft’s Drift application highlights how damaging authorization sprawl can be. Drift, an AI chatbot often integrated with Salesforce, was exploited after attackers gained access to Salesloft’s GitHub account and later its AWS environment. From there, they stole OAuth tokens and authentication credentials, exposing Salesforce data from potentially hundreds of organizations. This incident is an example of how interconnected SaaS systems and unchecked authorization links can create a cascading breach effect, where one weak point leads to multiple breaches across services.
The Business Impact of Authorization Sprawl
Aside from increasing technical risk, authorization sprawl erodes compliance, governance, and trust.
- Regulatory Exposure – Frameworks like GDPR, SOC 2, and HIPAA require strict access control and auditability. Untracked permissions make demonstrating compliance nearly impossible.
- Operational Risk – An overprivileged account can unintentionally leak data, delete configurations, or expose APIs.
- False Sense of Security – Zero Trust frameworks often stop at identity verification. Failing to continuously validate authorization is equivalent to protecting the front door while leaving internal doors wide open.
How to Fix Authorization Sprawl
Luckily, solving this problem does not require removing existing security controls but rather extending visibility and discipline into authorization.
- Conduct Regular Access Audits – Map users, roles, and permissions across your environment. Be sure to look for redundant privileges, dormant accounts, and orphaned API keys. Use tools that help visualize hidden paths and privilege escalation routes.
- Implement Structured Access Control – Use frameworks like role-based access control (RBAC) or attribute-based access control (ABAC). Standardizing roles ensures fewer exceptions and easier auditing.
- Automate Reviews and Revocations – Integrate identity and access management (IAM) with HR systems so access automatically changes when employees leave or change roles. This helps eliminate the temporary access that never gets removed.
- Shorten Token Lifetimes and Rotate Credentials – Session tokens and personal access tokens (PATs) should have an expiration period, such as 30 to 90 days. Using automated key rotation policies will help prevent long-lived access tokens from becoming backdoors.
- Enforce the Principle of Least Privilege – Grant users and systems only the minimum access needed.
- Extend Zero Trust to Authorization – Verification shouldn’t end with login. Apply continuous authorization checks.
Conclusion
As cloud ecosystems, APIs, and integrations continue to multiply, authorization complexity will grow exponentially. Businesses that invest in mapping and controlling authorization sprawl will stay ahead of both attackers and regulators. In cybersecurity, visibility equals control, and this begins with knowing exactly who can do what.