Privilege Escalation

This is the act of exploiting a bug or flaw in software/firmware to gain access to resources that would typically be protected. This results in a user gaining privileges beyond what the developer originally intended. There are two main types of privilege escalation:

• Vertical Privilege Escalation: this is when a low-privilege user access a function reserved for a high-privilege user. For example, a standard user accessing administrative functions.

• Horizontal Privilege Escalation: this is when a normal user accesses functions intended for another normal user. For example, user A is able to access user B's emails.