Describe privilege escalation

Understanding Cisco Cybersecurity Fundamentals (210-250)

Privilege escalation is the manner in which an attacker gains privileges in an application that they shouldn’t have. By accomplishing this attack, an attacker gains more rights that can then allow further exploitation of the host and other network connected hosts. For example, if an attacker is able to gain domain admin privileges they can move to any other host in the domain with full access.

There are two types of privilege escalation. The first type is vertical escalation. Vertical escalation like the example above is where the attacker gains access to a higher level such as admin or kernel rights.

The other type is horizontal escalation. This is common with web applications. An example would be an authenticated user being able to switch to another user’s account.