Privilege Escalation – Types, Prevention & Examples

What Is Privilege Escalation?

Privilege escalation refers to the act of gaining higher access levels or permissions on a computer system or network than were initially granted. This is a critical concept in cybersecurity, as it often allows attackers to perform actions that are normally restricted, such as accessing sensitive data, modifying system configurations, or executing unauthorized commands.

How Does a Privilege Escalation Attack Develop?

A privilege escalation has several stages, with the attacker starting from a lower level of access and progressively gaining higher privileges to achieve their objectives.

• Initial Compromise: The attacker first gains access to the system, usually by exploiting a vulnerability, phishing, social engineering, or by using weak credentials.
• Discovery and Reconnaissance: After gaining access, the attacker performs reconnaissance to understand the system configuration, installed software, user roles, and access control mechanisms.
• Privilege Escalation Attempt: The attacker now attempts to exploit a vulnerability such as a software vulnerability or misconfigured file permissions to elevate their privileges.
• Gaining Elevated Privileges: If the privilege escalation is successful, the attacker now has access to a higher level of privileges, such as administrator or system-level access.
• Persistence: After successfully escalating privileges, the attacker works to maintain control over the system, ensuring they can return even if their initial access point is closed.
• Final Objectives: With full control over the system, the attacker can now carry out their intended objectives, such as Data Exfiltration, Malware Installation, or Denial of Service.

Types Of Privilege Escalation Attacks

Vertical Privilege Escalation

This occurs when a user with lower-level permissions (e.g., a regular user) gains access to higher-level permissions (e.g., administrator or root access).

Horizontal Privilege Escalation

This occurs when a user gains access to the same level of privilege but to resources or accounts that should not be accessible to them. It’s an attempt to access data or perform actions that are restricted to other users of the same privilege level.

Preventing Privilege Escalation Threats

To prevent privilege escalation attacks, organizations should:

• Apply Security Patches: Regularly patch software and systems to close vulnerabilities.
• Implement the Principle of Least Privilege: Limit user privileges to the minimum necessary for job tasks and avoid giving unnecessary administrative access.
• Monitor and Audit: Continuously monitor system activity and perform regular audits of user permissions and access logs.
• Enforce Access Controls: Implement strong authentication (e.g., multi-factor authentication) and robust access controls to reduce the risk of exploitation.
• Use Security Tools: Employ intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDPS) and security monitoring tools to detect unusual behavior indicative of privilege escalation.

Methods For Detecting Privilege Escalation Attacks

There are several methods and techniques that can help identify privilege escalation activities:

• Monitoring for Unusual Account Activity: Monitoring and analyzing user behavior can help detect suspicious activities that indicate privilege escalation, such as a user who suddenly performs administrative-level tasks without prior history.
• Auditing User Account and Group Membership Changes: Privilege escalation often involves changes to user roles or group memberships. Watch for the creation of new accounts or changes to existing accounts with elevated privileges.
• File Integrity Monitoring: Privilege escalation can be accomplished by exploiting system misconfigurations or modifying critical system files.
• Monitoring System Logs: Privilege escalation often involves logging in with elevated privileges, so reviewing login activity can help detect abnormal behavior.
• Alerting for Access to Sensitive Resources: Privilege escalation attacks often lead to access to sensitive files or systems that should be off-limits to lower-level users.
• Behavior Analytics: Using User and Entity Behavior Analytics, organizations can monitor for anomalies in user behavior that may indicate privilege escalation attempts.

Learn How Acalvio Helps Enterprises Detect Privilege Escalation Attacks

Traditional security layers aimed at detecting privilege escalation are passive and only look for attacker behaviour, activity, IoCs (Indicators of Compromise), or side effects. Solutions like Acalvio ShadowPlex use deception technology to detect and respond to threats.With deception tech only activities against deceptive artifacts need to be monitored, and not all network traffic, or all processes, or file system activities.

Unlike traditional security layers, Acalvio’s deception technology is not dependent on the attacker tools. Unlike traditional security layers, deception technology can detect both known and unknown threats. Traditional security measures are employed in response to the actions of an attacker- detecting or preventing them. Whereas deception-based measures are used in anticipation of such actions, manipulating the attacker’s perceptions.

FAQs of Privilege Escalation