Entitlement sprawl is the uncontrolled growth of permissions across cloud systems, identities, and workloads. Over time, users, service principals, automation accounts, and temporary projects accumulate roles, policies, and access grants that are no longer needed. The result is a cloud estate where nobody can easily answer who can reach what, or why.
This matters because excessive permissions increase both attack surface and operational risk. If an attacker compromises one identity, entitlement sprawl can give them far more access than intended, making privilege escalation and lateral movement easier. Defenders use identity and entitlement controls, access reviews, and least-privilege policies to reduce this drift. CIEM tools are especially useful because they inventory permissions across cloud platforms, highlight overprovisioned access, and help teams remove stale grants before they become security gaps.