IT lexicon › Security › Privilege escalation

Privilege escalation

Security På svenska → Updated: 2026-05-23

When an attacker with limited access exploits a vulnerability to gain higher privileges.

Vertical: normal user → admin/root. Horizontal: one user's account → another user's account. Classics: kernel exploits, sudo bugs, misconfigured file permissions, SUID binaries. Defences: least privilege, patch cadence, monitoring.

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