Local admin can speed up work for a few roles and edge cases, but it also expands your attack surface, breaks auditability, and creates long-term hygiene problems. Prefer per-app, audited elevation and reserve local admin for tightly isolated scenarios.
The upside (why teams are tempted)
- Speed & autonomy: users can install tools, update drivers, and fix issues without waiting on IT.
- Legacy compatibility: older apps and repair routines sometimes assume admin rights.
- Short-term ticket relief: fewer “please install this” requests—for a while.
The downside (what bites later)
- Bigger blast radius: malware and attackers get persistence, lateral-movement tools, and the ability to disable defenses.
- No paper trail: when everything runs as admin, it’s hard to prove who did what, when.
- Config drift: ad-hoc tweaks, services, and scheduled tasks pile up and are hard to unwind.
- Compliance gaps: least-privilege requirements (and audits) become much harder to meet.
When local admin might be reasonable
- Developers / power users on non-production devices with strong EDR, full disk encryption, and frequent re-images.
- Short-lived lab/VM environments with no sensitive data and strict network segmentation.
- Break-glass accounts (separate from daily identities) with logging and rotation.
Better alternatives
- Per-app elevation (recommended): keep users standard but elevate the specific executable/operation they need—with scope, conditions, and logging.
- Self-service + approval: let users request elevation for named apps; auto-approve low-risk, require human approval for sensitive ones.
- Fix the root cause: move writes to user-writable paths, correct ACLs, or update the vendor.
If you must grant local admin, add guardrails
- Use a separate admin account (not the user’s daily identity).
- Enforce password rotation (e.g., Windows LAPS).
- Time-box the access and log all privileged actions.
- Apply App Control/allow-listing and keep EDR/tamper protection on.
- Review memberships of the Administrators group weekly.
How we handle this at UNYK
Our approach with Elevator is simple: keep users standard, elevate only what’s required, and record exactly what happened. It’s faster for users than filing tickets—and safer than handing out local admin.
