Local Privilege Escalation Risks Impacting Linux And Windows

Exploring Local Privilege Escalation Risks In Linux And Windows Systems

Jul 21, 2021 •

1 min read

Recently discovered flaws impacting Linux and Windows users alike could give attackers the highest system privileges. Remediations have been released for a security shortcoming affecting all Linux kernel versions from 2014 that can be exploited by malicious users and malware already deployed on a system to gain root-level privileges.

Microsoft's Windows 10 and the upcoming Windows 11 versions have been found vulnerable to a new local privilege escalation vulnerability that permits users with low-level permissions access Windows system files, in turn, enabling them to unmask the operating system installation password and even decrypt private keys.

"Starting with Windows 10 build 1809, non-administrative users are granted access to SAM, SYSTEM, and SECURITY registry hive files," CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC) said in a vulnerability note published Monday. "This can allow for local privilege escalation (LPE)."

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