Privilege escalation

 Privilege escalation refers to the act of exploiting a vulnerability or flaw in a system or application to gain higher levels of access or permissions than originally intended by the system administrator or developer. This can occur in various contexts, such as operating systems, network devices, databases, and web applications.

There are different types of privilege escalation:

Vertical Privilege Escalation: This involves gaining higher levels of access within the same privilege hierarchy. For example, a regular user gaining administrative privileges.

Horizontal Privilege Escalation: Here, an attacker gains access to the same level of privilege but on a different account or system. For instance, a user gaining access to another user's account with the same level of privileges.

Local Privilege Escalation: This occurs when an attacker gains higher privileges on the local system, usually by exploiting vulnerabilities in the operating system or installed software.

Remote Privilege Escalation: In this case, an attacker gains higher privileges on a remote system, often through exploiting vulnerabilities in network services or protocols.

Privilege escalation attacks can be prevented through various security measures such as regularly updating software, employing the principle of least privilege, implementing access controls, and conducting security audits and penetration testing. Additionally, promptly patching known vulnerabilities and monitoring system logs for suspicious activities are essential practices to mitigate the risk of privilege escalation attacks.