One of the questions our experts offering cybersecurity in Miami get asked often is: Can hackers gain administrative access to our systems? And the answer is: yes. Sophisticated attacks, called privilege escalation, can occur.
What is the Risk of a Privilege Escalation Attack?
If an attack occurs and it is successful, the attacker:
- Gains root access to your systems
- Takes over your entire system
- Disables security measures and systems
Of all the attacks that can occur, these escalation attacks are among the most concerning. You do not want an attacker to be able to control your system’s security measures, but they can and will if the attack is successful.
How Privilege Escalation Occurs
Attacks are rarely the same because they evolve as hackers learn how to overcome your security roadblocks. Organizations have different role-based systems in place to allow for secure access to systems.
For example:
- Secretary
- Engineer
The secretary and engineer will need to access different parts of a network. Admin access would allow full access, including the same privileges as the two entities above.
Privilege attacks occur when hackers:
- Elevate their current user login privileges
- Gain higher access levels
Vulnerabilities in the authorization system allow for the hacker to continue increasing their access level.
How does this occur?
- Routinely, hackers will use social engineering to gain access to higher role accounts, or
- Vulnerabilities may be exploited that allow the user to inherit permissions of another role
Two main methods of attacks can occur, including:
- Vertical. A vertical attack allows the hacker to move from one role to another. The goal is to go from a low role to admin or even gain access to the system’s root level. If the hacker has root-level control, they have the power to take the entire system over. In terms of damage, root-level control will be the most concerning.
- Horizontal: A horizontal attack will gain access to accounts with similar control levels. The goal of this attack is to cause damage across multiple accounts.
Vertical attacks are the most critical because they allow the hacker to control the system. These attacks often exploit a weak authentication system, which is either not patched or misconfigured in some way.
If a past administrator puts the system in place, current admins may miss the misconfiguration, leaving the system open to potential attackers.
Social engineering is a major risk because even with all of the internal training that you have your team undergo, there’s always a risk of breakdown.
You also have to be concerned about:
- Access control mechanisms being bypassed by attackers
- Physical access attacks, which involve code injection or scripts to be run on the server that overrides the control systems
Robust authentication systems, updated policies and zero-trust models will help you limit your risk of a privilege escalation taking place. Monitoring and rapid response systems can also help you control an attack before it becomes too severe.
Don’t let your company become a victim of privilege escalation attacks. Call your cybersecurity company in Miami. Our team is ready to help you strengthen your network’s systems to keep hackers at bay and improve your security.