Privilege Escalation

Category: Authentication & Authorization
Severity: High
MITRE ATT&CK Mapping: T1548 (Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism)

Description

Gaining higher-level permissions than originally granted, enabling attackers to escalate their access privileges and perform unauthorized actions with elevated permissions.

Technical Details

Attack Vector

  • Privilege escalation vulnerabilities
  • Permission validation bypass
  • Role manipulation attacks
  • Access control weaknesses

Common Techniques

  • Vertical privilege escalation
  • Horizontal privilege escalation
  • Role confusion attacks
  • Permission inheritance flaws

Impact

  • Elevated Access: Higher-level permissions than intended
  • Administrative Control: Access to administrative functions
  • System Compromise: Control over system functionality
  • Data Access: Access to sensitive data and resources

Detection Methods

Privilege Monitoring

  • Monitor privilege changes
  • Track permission escalations
  • Detect privilege abuse
  • Analyze permission patterns

Access Analysis

  • Monitor access attempts
  • Track permission usage
  • Detect unauthorized access
  • Analyze access patterns

Mitigation Strategies

Privilege Management

  • Implement least privilege principles
  • Use role-based access control
  • Deploy privilege validation
  • Monitor privilege changes

Access Controls

  • Implement proper authorization
  • Use permission validation
  • Deploy access monitoring
  • Monitor permission usage

Real-World Examples

Example 1: Vertical Privilege Escalation

def update_user_role(user_id, new_role, requester_id):
    requester = get_user(requester_id)
    
    # Weak privilege check
    if requester.role in ["admin", "moderator"]:
        update_user(user_id, {"role": new_role})
    
    # Attack: Moderator escalates user to admin
    # update_user_role(target_user, "admin", moderator_id)

Example 2: Horizontal Privilege Escalation

def access_user_data(user_id, requester_id):
    # Weak authorization check
    if requester_id == user_id:
        return get_user_data(user_id)
    
    # Attack: Manipulate user_id to access other users' data
    # access_user_data(target_user_id, target_user_id)

Example 3: Role Confusion

def perform_admin_action(action, user_roles):
    # Flawed role validation
    admin_roles = ["admin", "super_admin"]
    
    for role in user_roles:
        if role in admin_roles:
            return execute_admin_action(action)
    
    # Attack: user_roles = ["user", "admin_viewer"] 
    # Contains "admin" but shouldn't grant admin access

References & Sources

  • CyberArk - “Is your AI safe? Threat analysis of MCP”
  • Academic Paper - “Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions”

Privilege escalation attacks exploit access control weaknesses to gain elevated permissions and compromise system security.