Know all about privilege escalation attacks

This report provides a high-level overview of privilege escalation, distinguishing horizontal and vertical forms, outlining the typical stages (infiltration, exploitation, exfiltration), and detailing common techniques such as social engineering, software vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and malware. It emphasizes the potential impacts—data exposure, service disruption, and reputational damage—and recommends mitigations including least privilege, patch management, monitoring and auditing, application control, and user training, with a vendor-leaning note on Zero Trust tooling.