SaaS Permissions: Are Employees Granting Too Much Access?

Today, the average employee juggles dozens of SaaS apps—each requesting access with a quick click. But how many employees check whether those permissions (granted in moments to boost productivity) might be unlocking sensitive company data? While businesses thrive on the agility and collaboration SaaS tools provide, this convenience can create a frequently overlooked web of user-granted permissions. These minor access rights often fly under the radar of traditional security programs, allowing them to escalate into significant security gaps.

This post dives into the commonly overlooked world of SaaS permissions, including how the “just click allow” mindset exposes vulnerabilities tied to unchecked SaaS permissions. We'll also outline how to gain crucial visibility into your organization’s SaaS permissions, implement effective management strategies, and integrate permissions oversight into your broader cybersecurity risk posture.

The “just click allow” mindset

Modern SaaS applications offer unparalleled convenience, but come with a significant underlying risk—the ease with which users grant permissions. The “just click allow” mindset, driven by a desire for efficiency (and often a lack of awareness), creates a breeding ground for security vulnerabilities stemming from overlooked data exposure.

Why users grant permissions without scrutiny

Employees often grant SaaS permissions without a second thought. A constant drive for efficiency and productivity means that permission request dialogues, which pop up during installation or integration, are frequently viewed as minor hurdles rather than critical security checkpoints. Users might quickly click "allow" or "accept" to get to the app's functionality, assuming the requested access is standard or necessary for the app to work.

Several factors contribute to this tendency to grant permissions without thorough security checks: a desire for productivity, implicit trust, complex or vague permission dialogues, alert fatigue, or even seeing permissions as a general formality. This collective mindset means that granting permissions often happens with uninformed consent, unknowingly laying the groundwork for data exposure.

The scope of overlooked data exposure

When users click "allow" without fully understanding the permissions they're granting, the scope of data inadvertently exposed can be alarmingly vast. It's rarely just a single piece of information; modern SaaS applications, especially those leveraging APIs and integrations like OAuth, can request sweeping access across multiple systems and data repositories. Employees might think an app only needs access to their calendar, but the permission granted could extend much further.

Common types of sensitive data that can be inadvertently exposed through unchecked SaaS permissions include:

• Full email access: Grants complete control over emails, which can be exploited for data theft, social engineering, or sending malicious messages from a trusted account.
• Calendar details: Provides access to schedules and attendees; this information can be used for corporate espionage or to plan targeted attacks.
• Access to all contacts/address book: Allows full access to contact lists; this data can be exfiltrated for spam campaigns, targeted phishing, or identity theft.
• Cloud storage drives: Unlocks entire cloud storage solutions; this access can lead to intellectual property theft, exposure of sensitive financial/customer data, or compliance violations.
• Proprietary code & development tools: Offers access to code repositories and dev environments; this exposure can result in intellectual property loss, stolen trade secrets, or discovery of exploitable system vulnerabilities.
• CRM and sales data: Exposes sensitive customer information and sales pipelines; this can lead to loss of competitive advantage, customer poaching, or targeted scams against your clients.
• Microphone and camera access: Enables audio and video capture; unnecessary access creates severe privacy risks, enabling eavesdropping or blackmail if the app is compromised.
• Location data sharing: Allows tracking of physical location; this can reveal sensitive employee movements or confidential sites, potentially leading to physical threats.
• Third-party application management: Permits control over other connected apps; a malicious app could use this to install more malware, disable security tools, or escalate privileges.

Consider a new AI-powered note-taking app that, upon integration, requests access to an employee’s entire email archive and cloud storage to “intelligently” organize their information. This permission inadvertently gives an unknown third party deep access to a treasure trove of company data. Without careful scrutiny of these permission requests, the door to data exposure remains wide open.

How unmanaged permissions create security gaps

The "just click allow" mindset doesn't just represent a theoretical risk—it actively carves out exploitable security gaps within your organization. Unmonitored SaaS permissions create hidden pathways to sensitive data and expand your attack surface in ways many businesses don't fully realize (until it's too late).

Access to multiple systems via one app

Many modern SaaS applications utilize protocols like OAuth to integrate with other tools and services your business uses. This allows for seamless data flow, enhancing overall efficiency and productivity. For example, a project management app might request permission to access your email, calendar, and cloud storage to consolidate information. While convenient, this interconnectedness means a single SaaS application, if granted broad permissions, can become a central access point to a wide array of data spread across different systems.

This interconnectedness leads to the problem of "over-privileged" applications—tools that have far more access rights than necessary for their core function. If an over-privileged application is compromised by an attacker or if the vendor itself has a security lapse, the consequences are significantly amplified. The attacker doesn't just gain access to one application; they potentially gain entry into every other system that application was authorized to connect with, turning a single app compromise into a multi-system breach.

Third-party risks from shared SaaS data

When you grant permissions to a SaaS application, you are inherently entrusting that third-party vendor with access to your company’s data. This access introduces a significant element of supply chain risk: your organization’s security posture now becomes partially dependent on the security practices of every SaaS provider employees use. Once data access is permitted, you have limited control over how that third party secures your information on their systems (or protects against breaches to their own systems).

If one of these external SaaS vendors suffers a security breach, any of your corporate data they had access to can be compromised, regardless of how strong your own internal defenses are. For instance, notable security incidents where SaaS providers were breached have included:

• MOVEit Transfer Software (2023): Clop ransomware group exploited a zero-day SQL injection vulnerability, stealing data from hundreds of organizations who used MOVEit, affecting millions of individuals. This incident illustrates how a vulnerability in one SaaS tool can lead to widespread data compromise for many customers.
• Okta IAM Services (2023): Attackers compromised Okta’s customer support system using stolen credentials, allowing them to view files uploaded by specific Okta customers to the support system. This incident highlights how even interactions with a SaaS vendor’s support systems can become a risk if that vendor is compromised.
• Kaseya VSA (2021): REvil ransomware group exploited zero-day vulnerabilities in Kaseya’s VSA, pushing ransomware out to an estimated 800-1,500 businesses through their MSPs. This incident illustrates how compromising one SaaS tool used by service providers could have a massive ripple effect—the most impacted was not Kaseya, but the clients of MSPs who relied on Kaseya.

Effective SaaS permission management strategies

A proactive and continuous approach to permission management isn't just best practice—it's essential for robust cybersecurity. Reactive measures can't keep pace with the evolving threat landscape or the speed at which new applications and permissions appear. Let’s explore some actionable strategies to regain control of permissions across your organization.

Ongoing monitoring and audits

The SaaS ecosystem within any organization is in constant motion: new applications are added, employees change roles or leave the company, and existing app permissions can be modified or expanded. This continuous movement means that one-time security checks or infrequent audits quickly become outdated, leaving blind spots that attackers can exploit. Ongoing monitoring and regular, systematic audits help you maintain a clear view of your SaaS permission landscape. Establish a consistent audit cycle, reviewing key areas such as:

• Outdated or unnecessary access: Identify permissions granted to applications that are no longer in use, or those tied to employees who have left the company or changed roles and no longer require such access.
• Excessive permissions: Pinpoint applications that have accumulated more access rights than strictly necessary for their intended function (and enforce the principle of least privilege).
• Dormant accounts with active permissions: Detect user accounts that are inactive but still possess active, and potentially high-privilege, SaaS application connections.
• Connections to risky or unsanctioned applications: Identify any connections to third-party applications that are not approved or have known security vulnerabilities.

User-level visibility into permissions

Effective permission management requires understanding the “who, what, and why” behind every granted permission. While app-centric audits are vital, user-level visibility is critical for truly assessing and mitigating risk. This visibility means connecting the dots between the permissions granted, the applications involved, and the individual employees who authorized them. To achieve user-level visibility, organizations should focus on:

• Correlating permission data: Link SaaS application permission data with individual user profiles, including their roles, departments, and even their tenure within the company. This contextual information helps determine if the access granted is appropriate for a user’s job responsibilities.
• Assessing business justification: For each significant permission grant, especially those involving sensitive data or broad access, actively assess its business justification. Does the employee truly need this level of access for this specific application to perform their duties effectively?
• Identifying high-risk users: Pinpoint users who consistently grant excessive permissions or connect to a large number of potentially risky applications. This insight can then inform targeted training or policy adjustments. 

Permission discovery and detection automation

Manually tracking every SaaS application used by every single employee, along with the specific permissions each app holds, is a Herculean task (if not outright impossible) for any organization beyond a very small scale. The sheer volume of apps, users, and permission changes makes manual oversight unfeasible and error-prone. However, automation and specialized tools are essential to ease this process and significantly boost security. Ideally, a permission management solution should:

• Automatically discover connected applications: Continuously identify and inventory all third-party SaaS applications that users have connected to the corporate environment, including both officially sanctioned tools and potential "shadow IT" apps.
• Map permission scopes: Programmatically analyze and map the scope of permissions each application has been granted by each user across various platforms.
• Flag high-risk configurations and anomalies: Automatically detect and alert risky configurations, such as overly permissive settings, dormant accounts with active permissions, connections to known malicious apps, or unusual spikes in permission grants by specific users.
• Streamline audits and reporting: Provide centralized dashboards and generate reports that significantly speed up the audit process, offering security teams precise, actionable data to work with.

Integrating permissions into security posture

Ultimately, SaaS permissions should become part of your organization’s overall security posture. When permission data is treated as actionable intelligence, it can inform broader risk management strategies, enhance user-specific risk profiling, and enable more dynamic, targeted interventions.

Turning permission data into actionable intelligence

Insights from SaaS permission audits are more than just cleanup data; they're actionable intelligence that can drive significant security improvements. Use observed trends—like common risky user behaviors or frequently requested unsanctioned apps—to tailor your security awareness training. Crucially, this education must make it clear to employees what data access they are agreeing to with each permission grant, the potential security risks associated with oversharing, and how to critically evaluate if the requested access is essential for an app's stated function before they click 'allow'.

Beyond fostering a more security-conscious workforce, these permission insights can also help refine Acceptable Use Policies regarding app usage and data handling. Furthermore, understanding common permission patterns and risky app behaviors can better inform your SaaS procurement and vendor vetting processes, ensuring that new tools meet not only business needs but also stringent security and data privacy standards. This holistic approach addresses both user behavior and the tools themselves.

SaaS permissions as user risk factors

An employee's "SaaS permission hygiene"—reflecting the number of apps they use, the scope of permissions granted, and their reliance on unsanctioned tools—is a key indicator of their individual cyber risk. Integrating this permission data into broader, user-centric risk dashboards, alongside other security telemetry (like phishing susceptibility or endpoint security status), allows for a more holistic assessment. This approach enables security teams to prioritize interventions where they're most needed, focusing on users or app connections that present the highest risk.

Responding dynamically to permission-based risks

Identifying risky permissions is only the first step. Swift and effective response is what truly mitigates potential damage. This means promptly revoking or adjusting access when an application is deemed too risky, an employee changes roles, or a new threat associated with an app is detected. Automation is crucial to achieving this at scale. Automated workflows can provide real-time alerts for high-risk permission grants, trigger temporary suspension of suspicious app connections, and integrate with ticketing systems to ensure timely remediation and significantly reduce your window of exposure.

Securing your SaaS permission landscape with UpGuard

The convenience of today's SaaS ecosystem is undeniable, but unmanaged user-granted permissions that often accompany these tools represent a critical and frequently underestimated security risk. These "invisible" connections can rapidly escalate into significant data exposures, expanding your organization's attack surface in ways that challenge traditional security measures.

Tackling this challenge effectively requires a fundamental shift from reactive clean-up to proactive, continuous management. At UpGuard, we believe that empowering organizations with comprehensive visibility into their digital footprint and associated risks is paramount. Our approach focuses on providing the insights needed to understand and mitigate threats across your entire attack surface, including those stemming from user behaviors and third-party integrations.

As organizations navigate the complexities of the modern digital workplace, new approaches focused on user-centric risk intelligence will be essential to truly secure the SaaS-enabled enterprise.