Permission management is the ongoing process of assigning, reviewing, and adjusting access rights so that users, service accounts, and applications can only reach the resources they need. It is part of authorization, not authentication: login proves who someone is, while permissions decide what they may do afterward.
This matters because access rights rarely stay correct on their own. People change roles, teams merge, projects end, and temporary exceptions become permanent if nobody cleans them up. Weak permission management creates overprivileged accounts, which increase the blast radius of a compromised password, token, or API key. Good practice uses least privilege, periodic access reviews, and fast removal of stale rights. In real environments, defenders rely on permission management to limit lateral movement, reduce accidental misuse, and keep access rules understandable enough to operate safely.