Privilege Escalation

What Is a DCSync Attack? DCSync is a credential dumping technique that abuses Active Directory’s replication mechanism. Instead of running code on a Domain Controller, an attacker with the right privileges impersonates a Domain Controller and requests password data directly from another DC using the MS-DRSR (Directory Replication Service Remote Protocol). The result: you get NTLM hashes, Kerberos keys, and plaintext passwords (in some configurations) for any account in the domain — including krbtgt and Domain Admins — without ever touching LSASS on a DC. ...

Kerberoasting is one of the most reliable privilege escalation techniques in Active Directory environments. It’s quiet, requires no special privileges to execute, and often yields domain admin within hours — because organizations routinely set weak passwords on service accounts and never rotate them. This guide covers everything: how Kerberos works, why the attack is possible, what you need to execute it, and how defenders detect it. What Is Kerberoasting? Kerberoasting targets service accounts in Active Directory that have a Service Principal Name (SPN) set. Any authenticated domain user can request a Kerberos Ticket Granting Service (TGS) ticket for any SPN — and those tickets are encrypted with the service account’s NTLM hash. ...

BloodHound is the closest thing to a cheat code for Active Directory pentesting. Feed it your domain data and it draws a map of every path from regular user to Domain Admin — paths that would take you days to find manually. This guide covers everything: installation, data collection with SharpHound, running Cypher queries, and using the attack paths you find to actually escalate privileges. What BloodHound Does (and Why It Matters) Active Directory environments are complex. Thousands of users, hundreds of groups, nested permissions, ACL misconfigurations, Kerberos delegation settings — no human can reason about all of it manually. ...

AWS IAM is both the most powerful and most abused system in cloud security. Get the permissions wrong — even slightly — and an attacker can go from a low-privilege read-only role to full AdministratorAccess in under five minutes. This guide covers every IAM privilege escalation technique that works in 2026. Real attack paths, real commands, detection notes where relevant. If you’re doing cloud pentesting, red team engagements, or studying for AWS security certs — this is the complete reference. ...

Windows privilege escalation is one of the most critical skills in offensive security. You land on a box as a low-privileged user, and your job isn’t done until you have SYSTEM. This cheat sheet covers every technique that actually works in 2026 — with real commands, the right tools, and notes on which Windows versions each technique applies to. Bookmark it. You’ll use it. Why Windows PrivEsc Is Different From Linux Linux privilege escalation has patterns: SUID binaries, sudo misconfigs, writable cron jobs, kernel exploits. Clean and predictable. ...

Linux privilege escalation is the step between getting a shell and owning the box. You land as www-data or a low-priv user — the goal is root. This cheat sheet covers every technique worth knowing in 2026, with commands you can run immediately. Practice these techniques on a real machine. Vultr and DigitalOcean both offer $5–6/month VPS you can spin up, break, and destroy. Cheap, legal, and resets whenever you want. ...

⚠️ Active Threat — Publicly Disclosed April 29, 2026. Working exploit code is public. Every unpatched Linux system running kernel 4.14 through 6.17 is affected. Check your kernel version now. See mitigation steps below. What Is “Copy Fail”? CVE-2026-31431, dubbed “Copy Fail” by the researchers who found it, is a local privilege escalation vulnerability in the Linux kernel’s cryptographic subsystem. CVSS score: 7.8. The practical impact: any local user — no special permissions required — can get a root shell on an unpatched system. Reliable, deterministic, no kernel offsets needed, no brute force, no KASLR bypass. ...