Okta Security Hardening Checklist
Practical, execution‑focused validation points to increase assurance, reduce attack surface, and improve operational resilience across your Okta deployment—without relying on vague generalities.
- Least Privilege
- MFA Depth
- Token Integrity
- Lifecycle Control
- Observability
- Resilience
How to Use This Checklist
Each category groups controls validated across real-world enterprise programs. Mark each item with: Met, Planned, or Gap. High-risk gaps should correlate to a mitigation issue with explicit ownership and timeline.
Tip: Re-run quarterly. Track posture score deltas & trend reduction in
“unknown” classifications.
Tenant & Foundational Posture
- Primary + break-glass admins separated (distinct MFA factors)
- Administrative sessions restricted by network or conditional policies
- Org-wide password + recovery factor policies reviewed & version tagged
- System log retention & export pipeline configured (SIEM / warehouse)
- Support access (Okta) audit & revocation process documented
- License / feature usage inventory baseline captured
MFA & Adaptive Controls
- MFA enforced for all privileged & integration accounts
- Phased MFA adoption plan with metrics (coverage, abandonment)
- Push fatigue protection or number challenge enforced
- Adaptive / risk policy gated behind telemetry stability
- Legacy SMS/Voice minimized; phishing‑resistant factors prioritized
- Enrollment UX tested for error-handling & fallback continuity
Token & Session Security
- Access token lifetime aligned with risk & downstream caching reality
- Refresh token rotation enabled (revocation detection path tested)
- Session lifetime vs idle timeout documented & justified
- Audience scoping validated—no overly broad generic audiences
- Nonce & PKCE enforced for public / SPA clients
- JWK key rotation rehearsal executed & rollback procedure defined
Application & Integration Hygiene
- Unused / stale OAuth clients archived or deleted
- Client secrets rotated within policy schedule (logged & verified)
- Scopes minimized—no extraneous profile / admin grants
- Redirect URI wildcard usage eliminated / minimized with exception log
- Service accounts mapped to ownership & renewal calendar
- SCIM connectors reviewed for attribute over-provisioning
Delegated Administration & Access Control
- Role assignments follow least-privilege matrix
- Periodic role delta report generated & reviewed
- No personal accounts hold super admin permanently
- Emergency (break-glass) credential retrieval tested
- Automated drift detection on admin role changes
- Group-based admin scoping used over broad direct role grants
Monitoring & Event Intelligence
- System log streaming to SIEM with delivery health metrics
- Anomaly detection for failed authentication bursts
- MFA challenge failure rate thresholds & alerting configured
- Token error taxonomy (invalid_aud / exp / kid) tracked with volume
- Geo & device inconsistency heuristics logged (impossible travel)
- Custom dashboards: auth success %, median + p95 latency, drift
Identity Lifecycle & Governance
- Joiner / mover / leaver flows instrumented with SLA metrics
- Deprovisioning latency (account disable → token invalidation) measured
- Attribute mastering matrix versioned & change-controlled
- Role / group re-certification cadence enforced
- Inactive / dormant account archival or step-down policy applied
- Human vs non-human principal classification maintained
Advanced Hardening & Resilience
- Dedicated high-risk application policy tier enforced
- Session binding (device / risk) strategy documented & validated
- Fail-closed behavior tested for dependency outages (IdP unreachability)
- Tamper-resistant logging controls assessed (integrity / hashing)
- Runbook library completeness score tracked
- Chaos / simulation exercise for token & key compromise scenario
Progressive Security Maturation Flow
Avoid trying to implement every measure simultaneously. Sequence adoption to build on stable telemetry and verified operational behaviors.
- Baseline: Admin isolation, logging export, MFA for privileged accounts.
- Expansion: Broad MFA rollout, token rotation rehearsal, scope tightening.
- Adaptive: Risk policies with monitored false-positive feedback loops.
- Continuous: Drift detection automation, lifecycle SLA instrumentation.
- Resilience: Chaos simulation (key expiry, API degradation, partial outage).
Need a Formal Posture Assessment?
We’ll map current state, surface material gaps, prioritize remediations, and model the ROI of advanced control adoption—grounded in incident prevention and operational efficiency.