Privilege escalation
Definition
A post-access technique in which an attacker who has gained low-level access to a system exploits a vulnerability or misconfiguration to obtain higher-level privileges, such as administrator or root access, enabling deeper compromise.
Related terms
- Anti-forensic technique
- Any action taken by an attacker to destroy, conceal, or alter evidence of their activity. Common examples include log clearing, timestomping, use...
- Credential stuffing
- An automated attack that replays username-password pairs from previous data breaches against new target services, exploiting the widespread reuse of passwords across...
- Lateral movement
- Attacker activity after initial compromise in which the threat actor traverses from one internal system to another, typically to escalate privileges, access...
- Living-off-the-land (LotL)
- An attack approach where the adversary uses tools and binaries already present on the target system, such as PowerShell, WMI, certutil, or...
- Unauthorised access
- The act of accessing a computer, network, or data store without permission from the owner or without lawful authority. The core element...
Explained in
- Hacking and Unauthorised Access OffencesA post-access technique in which an attacker who has gained low-level access to a system exploits a vulnerability or misconfiguration to obtain higher-level pr...