How can I tell if external vendors or contractors are over-privileged in my SaaS tools?

You can identify over-privileged external vendors or contractors by reviewing all external identities across your SaaS tools, checking the role and access level assigned to each external user, and looking for signs of privilege drift such as elevated permissions, file-sharing rights, long-lived access, and access that continues long after the project ends.

Most SaaS platforms do not automatically expire contractor access, so external users often retain permissions they no longer need. Tools like FrontierZero help organizations map all external identities, show exactly what each external user can access, and flag high-risk privileges across every SaaS app.

Why External Users Become Over-Privileged in SaaS

External identities don’t follow your HR processes. They’re invited directly into apps, and the SaaS tool becomes their identity layer.

This creates the perfect environment for privilege drift.

1. External users bypass internal identity lifecycle controls

Vendors and contractors authenticate using:

  • their own Google/Microsoft accounts
  • personal emails
  • third-party domains

This means:

  • they don’t appear in your directory
  • HR never offboards them
  • access stays active indefinitely

They accumulate permissions over time.

2. SaaS apps make it easy to over-grant permissions

Employees often give external users:

  • Editor access
  • Share access
  • Project permissions
  • Workspace-level rights
  • Admin roles in tools like Notion, Slack, or Figma

…simply because it’s faster.

No one audits these decisions.

3. Projects end, but access doesn’t

Contractors typically keep access because:

  • no one knows they’re still in the system
  • no removal workflow exists
  • SaaS apps don’t auto-expire external identities
  • there is no notification when external access becomes stale

This access continues silently in the background.

4. External identities are often linked to sensitive systems

Common high-risk scenarios:

  • external developers with repo access
  • marketing agencies with file access
  • support vendors with admin rights
  • design partners with workspace-wide privileges
  • cloud/onboarding vendors with credential access

FrontierZero correlates roles + access level + identity type to flag over-privileged external users.

How to Identify Over-Privileged External Users (Step-by-Step)

1. List all external users across your SaaS apps

You need a complete map that shows:

  • every external identity
  • which SaaS app they belong to
  • who invited them
  • when they last accessed the app

Most companies underestimate this by 2–5×.

FrontierZero provides a unified external-identity view across tools.

2. Review each external user’s permission level

Look for:

  • shared-drive or workspace-wide permissions
  • project/repository access
  • admin or owner roles
  • sensitive-data access
  • ability to invite more users
  • ability to modify security settings

External users rarely need high-privilege access.

3. Check last activity timestamps

Over-privileged external users often haven’t logged in for:

  • 30 days
  • 60 days
  • 90+ days

Inactive + high privilege = high-risk.

4. Review external access for sensitive teams

Pay special attention to access granted to:

  • engineering
  • finance
  • HR
  • executive teams
  • legal
  • product roadmaps
  • infrastructure diagrams

External visibility here is often unintentional.

5. Confirm whether the vendor still works with you

Large SaaS exposures come from:

  • past contractors
  • old agencies
  • trial vendors
  • temporary specialists
  • offshore development teams

Access should end when the relationship ends.

FrontierZero highlights external identities that appear inactive or unowned.

What makes an external user “high-risk”?

Typical high-risk signs:

  • has editor/admin privileges
  • has access to shared drives
  • last active 60–90+ days ago
  • no internal owner
  • belongs to unrecognized domains
  • was invited by an ex-employee

FrontierZero prioritizes these automatically.

How do external accounts become over-privileged without anyone noticing?

Because permissions in SaaS are granted by:

  • teammates
  • project managers
  • tool owners, not the security team.

There is no central approval flow.

Why don’t SaaS apps remove external users automatically?

Because SaaS platforms treat external identities as independent accounts.
Only a manual or automated cleanup removes them.

FAQ

Are external users the same as guest accounts?

Guest = external identity, but some SaaS tools don’t label them clearly.

Should external users ever be admins?

Almost never. Only in tightly controlled, short-term cases.

Can external users keep access even after the person leaves their company?

Yes, their identity persists until you remove them.