AML.TA0012 · ATLAS tactic
The adversary is trying to gain higher-level permissions.
Privilege Escalation consists of techniques that adversaries use to gain higher-level permissions on a system or network. Adversaries can often enter and explore a network with unprivileged access but require elevated permissions to follow through on their objectives. Common approaches are to take advantage of system weaknesses, misconfigurations, and vulnerabilities. Examples of elevated access include:
These techniques often overlap with Persistence techniques, as OS features that let an adversary persist can execute in an elevated context.
4 mapped techniques · ATLAS 2026.05
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access. Credentials may take the form of usernames and passwords of individual user accounts or API keys that provide access to various AI resources and services. Compromised credentials may provide access to additional AI a
Adversaries may use their access to an AI agent to invoke tools the agent has access to. LLMs are often connected to other services or resources via tools to increase their capabilities. Tools may include integrations with other applications, access to public or private data sources, and the ability to execute code. Th
Adversaries may induce a large language model (LLM) to ignore, circumvent, or override its safety/alignment behaviors and/or guardrails to elicit outputs the model is intended to withhold. Once jailbroken, the LLM may be used in unintended ways by the adversary. Jailbreaks may be achieved via adversarial prompting, or
Adversaries may break out of a container or virtualized environment to gain access to the underlying host. This can allow an adversary access to other containerized or virtualized resources from the host level or to the host itself. In principle, containerized / virtualized resources should provide a clear separation o