Testing for Privilege Escalation and Bypassing Authorization Schema

In this recipe, we are going to talk about two vulnerability types: the first is privilege escalation and the second is bypassing authorization schema. The lab will be for both vulnerabilities because once we escalate privilege, we will perform unauthorized actions.

In a privilege escalation attack, an attacker gains elevated permissions or performs actions intended for different users. Typically, this attack is possible due to a misconfiguration, software bug, or a vulnerability that allows the attacker to escalate their permissions. There are two types of privilege escalation: the first is vertical privilege escalation. In this attack, the attacker successfully gains more permissions (such as user-to-administrator permissions) than their account is supposed to have. The second type is horizontal privilege escalation. In this attack, the attacker performs an action that is not intended for their user account but...