Privilege Escalation

• Privilege Escalation

  • 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.
• Privilege Escalation Examples of elevated access include:

  • SYSTEM/root level
  • local administrator
  • user account with admin-like access
  • user accounts with access to specific system or perform specific function
• LLM Prompt Injection

  • An adversary may craft malicious prompts as inputs to an LLM that cause the LLM to act in unintended ways. These "prompt injections" are often designed to cause the model to ignore aspects of its original instructions and follow the adversary's instructions instead.
• LLM Plugin Compromise

  • Adversaries may use their access to an LLM that is part of a larger system to compromise connected plugins. LLMs are often connected to other services or resources via plugins to increase their capabilities. Plugins may include integrations with other applications, access to public or private data sources, and the ability to execute code.
• LLM Jailbreak

  • An adversary may use a carefully crafted LLM Prompt Injection designed to place LLM in a state in which it will freely respond to any user input, bypassing any controls, restrictions, or guardrails placed on the LLM. Once successfully jailbroken, the LLM can be used in unintended ways by the adversary.