An Access Rights Manager (ARM) is an enterprise tool used to provision, review, and audit user permissions across connected systems such as directories, file shares, email platforms, and business applications. It helps administrators answer a core security question: who has access to what, and why?
ARM products matter because they sit inside the identity control plane. They often connect to high-value services and may run with elevated privileges, so a flaw in the tool can expose more than one server. Attackers may target ARM to change permissions, harvest account data, or use a vulnerability to execute code on the management host. Defenders rely on ARM for least-privilege enforcement, access reviews, and audit trails, but they should also protect it like critical infrastructure: restrict network exposure, limit service-account permissions, patch quickly, and monitor for unusual administration activity.