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Latest coverage for Privilege Escalation

Privilege escalation lets an attacker gain elevated access, which can enable data theft or system control; least privilege and patching limit impact.

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Privilege escalation is gaining access beyond the permissions assigned to an account, process, or service. Vertical escalation moves from a lower-privileged role to an administrator or system account; horizontal escalation accesses another user’s resources at a similar privilege level. Attack paths include software vulnerabilities, insecure authorization checks, exposed credentials, unsafe service configurations, and excessive permissions in operating systems, applications, cloud environments, or containers.

Successful escalation can let an attacker change security settings, access protected data, execute code as a trusted service, or establish control that survives an initial compromise. The most relevant defenses are least-privilege access, strong separation of administrative accounts, server-side authorization checks for every sensitive action, timely remediation of exploitable flaws, and review of permissions for users, services, and workloads. Logging privileged actions and unusual account or process behavior supports detection and helps determine whether a compromised low-privilege foothold reached higher-value systems.

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LegacyHive PoC exposes a Windows Privilege Escalation flaw affecting fully patched Windows desktop and server systems. Just hours after Microsoft’s July 2026 Patch Tuesday, security researcher Nightmare Eclipse, also known as Chaotic Eclipse, published a new Windows zero-day proof-of-concept called LegacyHive. This time, the target is the Windows User Profile Service (ProfSvc), and unlike the […]

Security Affairs 16 Jul 2026, 4:57 a.m. Theme · 4 stories 0-Day Exploit Flaw Microsoft Patch Patch Tuesday PoC Privilege Escalation

Ubiquiti patched seven UniFi OS flaws, including critical CVE-2026-50746, which allows command injection in UniFi Connect Application. Ubiquiti released security updates for seven critical UniFi OS vulnerabilities, including a maximum-severity flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-50746 (CVSS score of 10.0), enabling command injection attacks. The issue affects UniFi Connect Application versions 3.4.16 and earlier, a platform used […]

Security Affairs 9 Jul 2026, 8:20 a.m. Incident · 5 stories CVE-2026-50746 Critical Vulnerability CVE Flaw Patch Privilege Escalation Ubiquiti Vulnerability

DirtyClone: a Linux kernel privilege escalation that silently rewrites executables in memory, leaving no disk trace. Patch now. JFrog Security Research published a working exploit walkthrough on June 25 for CVE-2026-43503 (CVSS score of 8.8), a Linux kernel privilege escalation they call DirtyClone. It’s the fourth vulnerability in the DirtyFrag family, all sharing the same […]

Security Affairs 27 Jun 2026, 9:12 p.m. Incident · 2 stories CVE-2026-43503 CVE Exploit Flaw Linux Patch Privilege Escalation Research Root Access Vulnerability

Microsoft confirmed the RoguePlanet Defender zero-day (CVE-2026-50656), a privilege escalation flaw, and is developing a security patch. Microsoft has acknowledged the RoguePlanet zero-day affecting Microsoft Defender, tracked as CVE-2026-50656 (CVSS score of 7.8). The vulnerability allows privilege escalation through the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine. The company stated it is aware of the issue and is […]

Security Affairs 18 Jun 2026, 9:21 p.m. Theme · 12 stories CVE-2026-50656 0-Day Antivirus CVE Flaw Malware Microsoft Patch Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

A Linux kernel nf_tables bug lets local users gain root via use-after-free caused by a logic error; patch removes a single “!”. CVE-2026-23111 lives in nf_tables, the Linux kernel’s packet filtering framework. Exodus Intelligence researcher Oliver Sieber found the bug in early 2025 and chained it into a full local privilege escalation. The flaw was […]

Security Affairs 9 Jun 2026, 7:27 p.m. CVE-2026-23111 CVE Exploit Flaw Framework Linux Patch Privilege Escalation Root Access

Cisco warns of CVE-2026-20245 in SD-WAN Manager, a flaw that can lead to root access via file upload command injection; no patch or workaround yet. Cisco warns of a privilege escalation flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-20245 (CVSS base score of 7.8), in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN Manager, the platform formerly known as SD-WAN vManage. An authenticated local […]

Security Affairs 6 Jun 2026, 1:35 a.m. Incident · 9 stories Actively exploited CVE-2026-20245 Cisco CVE Flaw Patch Privilege Escalation Root Access Warning

Google fixed 124 Android flaws, including CVE-2025-48595, an actively exploited privilege escalation bug linked to targeted attacks. Google has released its June 2026 Android security updates, fixing 124 vulnerabilities across the mobile operating system. One flaw, tracked as CVE-2025-48595 (CVSS score of 8.4) stands out from the rest because it is already being exploited in […]

Security Affairs 3 Jun 2026, 9:44 p.m. Incident · 3 stories Actively exploited CVE-2025-48595 Android CVE Fixed Flaw Google Mobile Patch Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

CIFSwitch is a 19-year-old Linux logic bug turning forged CIFS auth keys into root. Affects Mint, CentOS, Rocky, Kali, SLES. CIFSwitch stands apart from typical privilege escalation vulnerabilities because of how it was discovered. Asim Manizada, a security engineer at SpaceX, didn’t find it by auditing source code the old-fashioned way. He built an AI-powered […]

Security Affairs 1 Jun 2026, 9:55 p.m. Incident · 2 stories Artificial Intelligence Linux Privilege Escalation Root Access Source Code Vulnerability