Privilege escalation In this context of computer security, privilege escalation is the malicious acquisition or exercise of escalated access to resources that are normally reserved for administrative or other authorized users or applications. When applied in an unauthorized way, privilege escalation is a security violation and is enabled by a flaw in the configuration, services, installed software or operating system. It results in a regular user being given more access than was intended by the developer or the administrator. In November 2013, Microsoft issued a security advisory on vulnerability that would allow privilege escalation exploits in computers running Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. The security advisory (2914486) reads in part, “The vulnerability is an elevation of privilege vulnerability. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel mode. An attacker could then install programs; view, change, or