Privilege escalation

Privilege escalation is the act of exploiting a bug, a design flaw, or a configuration oversight in an operating system or software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user. The result is that an application with more privileges than intended by the application developer or system administrator can perform unauthorized actions.

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Information security
Related security categories
Computer security Automotive security Cybercrime Cybersex trafficking Computer fraud Cybergeddon Cyberterrorism Cyberwarfare Electronic warfare Information warfare Internet security Mobile security Network security Copy protection Digital rights management
Threats
Adware Advanced persistent threat Arbitrary code execution Backdoors Hardware backdoors Code injection Crimeware Cross-site scripting Cryptojacking malware Botnets Data breach Drive-by download Browser helper objects Viruses Data scraping Denial of service Eavesdropping Email fraud Email spoofing Exploits Keyloggers Logic bombs Time bombs Fork bombs Zip bombs Fraudulent dialers Malware Payload Phishing Polymorphic engine Privilege escalation Ransomware Rootkits Bootkits Scareware Shellcode Spamming Social engineering Screen scraping Spyware Software bugs Trojan horses Hardware Trojans Remote access trojans Vulnerability Web shells Wiper Worms SQL injection Rogue security software Zombie
Defenses
Application security Secure coding Secure by default Secure by design Misuse case Computer access control Authentication Multi-factor authentication Authorization Computer security software Antivirus software Security-focused operating system Data-centric security Code obfuscation Data masking Encryption Firewall Intrusion detection system Host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS) Anomaly detection Security information and event management (SIEM) Mobile secure gateway Runtime application self-protection
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