The initiative also included implementing standardized monitoring systems to identify and report any remaining high-privilege access within Microsoft 365 applications, ensuring continuous compliance with the new security standards. Microsoft has successfully eliminated high-privilege access vulnerabilities across its Microsoft 365 ecosystem as part of its comprehensive Secure Future Initiative, marking a significant milestone in enterprise security architecture. The initiative emerged from an “assume breach” mindset, recognizing that overprivileged access could amplify the impact of potential security incidents across the entire Microsoft 365 infrastructure. The technology giant’s Deputy Chief Information Security Officer for Experiences and Devices, Naresh Kannan, announced that the company has mitigated over 1,000 high-privilege application scenarios through a systematic approach that prioritizes least-privilege access principles. High-privileged access represents a critical security vulnerability where applications or services obtain broad access to customer content, enabling them to impersonate users without proper authentication context. Microsoft’s security team conducted exhaustive reviews of all Microsoft 365 applications and their service-to-service interactions with resource providers across the technology stack. Microsoft Networks Labs analysts identified that the traditional service-to-service authentication protocols were creating unnecessary security exposure across the platform. The elimination of these access patterns required Microsoft to fundamentally reimagine how its applications interact within the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. Cyber Security News is a Dedicated News Platform For Cyber News, Cyber Attack News, Hacking News & Vulnerability Analysis. Microsoft accelerated the enforcement of new secure authentication protocols, ensuring that all service-to-service interactions operate within the minimal privilege scope necessary for their intended functions. For example, applications requiring access to specific SharePoint sites now receive granular “Sites.Selected” permissions rather than the broader “Sites.Read.All” permissions. With years of experience under his belt in Cyber Security, he is covering Cyber Security News, technology and other news. The implementation phase focused on deprecating legacy authentication protocols that inherently supported high-privilege access patterns. This monumental effort engaged more than 200 engineers across Microsoft’s various product teams, demonstrating the company’s commitment to comprehensive security transformation. Tushar is a Cyber security content editor with a passion for creating captivating and informative content.
This Cyber News was published on cybersecuritynews.com. Publication date: Sat, 12 Jul 2025 04:35:13 +0000