ACSIA Help Center

What is a "user privilege elevation"?

Permanently deleted user
Permanently deleted user
  • Updated

Overview

This article will explain the ACSIA alert called "user privilege elevation".


Explaining the user privilege elevation

"User privilege elevation" refers to the process of granting higher levels of access or authority to a user, allowing them to perform actions or access resources that are typically restricted.

Imagine we have a computer at work, and we usually use it to complete our daily tasks like checking emails, writing documents, and browsing the internet. Our user account on the computer has limited privileges, which means we can't make changes to critical system settings or install new software.

Now, let's say there's a software update that needs to be installed on our computer, but it requires administrative rights to do so. Since our account doesn't have the necessary privileges, we can't install the update.

In this situation, we may ask our IT department or a system administrator to perform "user privilege elevation" for our account temporarily. They will raise our user privileges to the level of an administrator, allowing us to install the software update.

It's important to understand that "user privilege elevation" is typically done on a temporary basis and for specific tasks that require higher privileges. After the task is completed, our privileges are reverted to their original, more restricted level to maintain security and prevent unauthorized access to sensitive parts of the system.

User privilege elevation can be a valuable tool when used responsibly and under the control of trusted administrators. However, it can also be a potential security risk if granted to malicious users, as they might misuse the elevated privileges to cause harm or compromise the system's security.

ACSIA alerts you when a user privilege escalation is performed. Here's all the information that ACSIA shows you in the Live Notification:

Also, on the right of the above screen, we can see the actions that a user can perform when we're notified by ACSIA of a user privilege escalation.