Privilege Escalation Testing

Privilege Escalation Testing is a security assessment technique that identifies and exploits weaknesses allowing an attacker (or authorized tester) to gain higher system privileges. Starting with low-level access (e.g., an unprivileged user account), the tester looks for misconfigurations, unpatched vulnerabilities, weak file permissions, or other flaws to elevate to admin/root. This is a core part of penetration testing and red team exercises. It's also crucial for defenders—security teams must understand privilege escalation vectors to mitigate them.