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privileged user

nounverified·updated May 9, 2026

A user who is authorized (and therefore, trusted) to perform security-relevant functions that ordinary users are not authorized to perform.

MWENIST SP 800-171r3

Senses

NIST Cybersecurity Framework

Any user account with greater than basic access privileges. Typically, these accounts have elevated or increased privileges with more rights than a standard user account. However, the extent of privileges across different privileged accounts can vary greatly depending on the organization, job function or role, and the technology in use.

NISTIR 7298: Glossary of Key Information Security Terms, Revision 2

A user that is authorized (and, therefore, trusted) to perform security-relevant functions that ordinary users are not authorized to perform.

Classifications

Entity Type

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Sensitivity

unclassified

Information Class

unclassified

Variants

synonym
privileged role
plural
privileged users
possessive
privileged user's
pluralpossessive
privileged users'