Privilege Escalation: The Invisible Risk That Compromises Your IAM Strategy

Privilege escalation can occur in many ways, but they all boil down to one thing: using a low-privilege account that, once compromised, allows an attacker to cross boundaries that should never be crossed.

 

Data from the 2026 Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report is clear on the scope of this type of attack: the privilege escalation category accounted for 40% of the vulnerabilities studied. Added to this is the risk posed by non-human identities, 97% of which have excessive privileges (one of the clearest entry points for privilege escalation), according to NHIMG.

Identity policies that aren’t followed, a lack of control over access and identity management, privileges that exist “by default”… The root cause of these types of attacks usually points directly to an inadequate IAM architecture that is, therefore, unable to prevent privilege escalation. In contrast, a well-designed IAM architecture can act as a barrier to neutralize this type of attack. We’ll discuss this further below.

What is privilege escalation?

Privilege escalation occurs when an identity (human or non-human) gains access beyond what its role should allow. From the attacker’s perspective, this type of incident begins by compromising an account and, from there, crossing boundaries (“escalating”) to other accounts until the attacker achieves their goal (for example, accessing critical resources).

This movement can be horizontal (the attacker infiltrates accounts with similar permission levels) or vertical (the attacker progressively gains access to accounts with higher privileges).

How does privilege escalation occur?

The process begins when an attacker compromises an identity. There are many techniques involved, ranging from simple to highly sophisticated. For example, a report by the FBI and the U.S. Cybersecurity Agency on the techniques used by the Scattered Spider group mentions the impersonation of IT staff, credential theft techniques such as MFA fatigue, and extortion via ransomware, among others.

After gaining initial access, the attacker assesses what they can do with the compromised account’s permissions and attempts to use them to gain access to the desired resources. To do so, they exploit:

• Improperly configured accounts. Accounts with unencrypted secrets, overly permissive default settings, poorly defined IAM permissions, undocumented backdoors… Configuration flaws that ultimately allow users to perform actions or access features they shouldn’t.
• Excessive permissions. Users who have unnecessary and excessive privileges for the tasks they need to perform, violating the principle of least privilege.
• Indirect paths. Combinations of permissions, groups, or access points that, while seemingly harmless on their own, can open pathways to critical resources and facilitate privilege escalation without an obvious direct permission.

Privilege escalation techniques that ultimately serve to exploit flawed architectures in a digital ecosystem: access policies that haven’t been audited, privileges that aren’t needed but remain enabled by default… all of these are open doors that attackers find and exploit.

A Well-Designed IAM Architecture to Detect and Stop Privilege Escalation

Stopping privilege escalation requires actions at many levels, from managing software updates and patches to protecting endpoints. And at the heart of these actions lies the IAM architecture—not as just another layer, but as the central control point from which to organize the defense.

A well-designed IAM architecture provides a centralized view of identities within an ecosystem and is capable of applying best practices to shut the door on attackers, including:

• The Principle of Least Privilege (PoLP) for all identities.
• Multi-factor authentication for access.
• Real-time protection against phishing attempts, brute-force attacks, account takeover (ATO), or credential misuse.
• Support for internal, external, and non-human identities.
• Risk-, identity-, and behavior-based policies to ensure that each user accesses only what they need.
• Activity monitoring systems to detect suspicious patterns.

In this context, Soffid AM solutions for centralizing access management, Soffid PAM for securing privileged accounts, and Soffid ITDR for monitoring and response offer an identity management ecosystem capable of curbing privilege escalation.

Want to know how? Get in touch with us to tell us about your environment and discuss how we can help you design an identity ecosystem that’s resistant to privilege escalation.