security//privilege escalation

Privilege escalation is the step of an attack in which an attacker or process moves from limited authority to a more powerful security context. It may be vertical (ordinary user to administrator, on Unix-like systems usually ending in root access) or horizontal (one user's access to another user's resources).

Privilege escalation is the step of an attack in which an attacker or process moves from limited authority to a more powerful security context. It may be vertical (ordinary user to administrator, on Unix-like systems usually ending in root access) or horizontal (one user's access to another user's resources).

Initial compromise and final control should be reported separately. A service account with no secrets and a read-only filesystem creates a very different incident from root on a production host. Escalation succeeds when another weakness bridges that gap.

The first breached boundary determines entry. The next one often determines impact.