Privilege Escalation
An attack technique where an adversary gains higher-level permissions than initially granted, moving from a standard user account to administrator or root access.
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker elevates their access rights beyond what was originally authorized. Vertical escalation moves from a low-privilege account to a high-privilege one (user to admin). Horizontal escalation accesses another user’s resources at the same privilege level.
Attackers exploit software vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, weak credentials, or design flaws to escalate privileges. Once achieved, elevated privileges allow installing malware, accessing sensitive data, modifying system configurations, and creating persistence mechanisms.
Defenses include patching systems promptly, enforcing least-privilege access, monitoring for privilege changes, using strong unique passwords for admin accounts (stored in a password manager), and implementing privileged access management (PAM) solutions.
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