DeadSwitch Hacking Mindset – The Art of Privilege

~ Tom's IT Cafe

Escalation Paths Hackers Love
By DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost

“You thought you held the crown. I was already wearing it.”

Root is not hacked. It’s inherited.

Escalation is not noise. It’s craft.
From guest to ghost. From user to god.
A true intruder doesn’t ask for privilege. They reveal the system’s own betrayal.

This is not brute force.
This is alchemy in terminals.
This is where the hacker becomes the admin.

1 – Misconfigured SUDO

“You gave them the key. They simply turned it.”

  • sudo with NOPASSWD on writable scripts
  • Wildcards in command paths
  • sudoedit vulnerabilities
  • Abusing less, vi, or tar with elevated rights

Check your sudoers. Every line is a potential crown.

2 – SUID/SGID Binaries

“Legacy tools. Forgotten permissions. Silent elevation.”

  • find, vim, nmap, perl with SUID bits
  • Custom scripts with poor permission hygiene
  • GTFOBins is the scripture for this path

Strip the SUIDs. Or they will strip you of control.

3 – Kernel Exploits

“Where the blood runs deep in the OS.”

  • Dirty COW, Dirty Pipe, Stack Clash, OverlayFS
  • CVEs you never patched because no one screamed
  • Attackers don’t care about uptime. Only root.

If you’re not tracking your kernel, someone else is.

4 – Writable System Paths

“Control the path, control the privilege.”

  • Dropping malicious binaries into system $PATH
  • Hijacking libraries via LD_PRELOAD
  • Path hijacks via cron or systemd

Your PATH is sacred. Don’t let them walk it in silence.

5 – Credentials in the Open

“The god token, rotting in a forgotten corner.”

  • .bash_history, config.php, Jenkins creds
  • Cloud metadata services – default IAM roles
  • GPG keys with no passphrase
  • Password reuse across local accounts

Passwords don’t die. They linger, waiting to betray.

6 – Scheduled Tasks and Cron Jobs

“Automated trust is still trust. And trust is always a weapon.”

  • World-writable scripts executed by root
  • Cron jobs calling temp files
  • Systemd timers triggering user-controlled services

If a job runs as root, the script must be carved in stone.

7 – Exploiting Weak Services

“One vulnerable daemon. One silent intrusion.”

  • Polkit. D-Bus. X11.
  • Docker escape via mounted sockets
  • LXD container breakout

Your services are your emissaries. Audit them like enemies.

No CVE required. Just carelessness.

Privilege escalation isn’t magic. It’s mechanics.
It’s knowing where the guard sleeps and what door he forgot to lock.

Final Whisper
You cannot defend what you do not inspect.
And you cannot keep the crown if you gift the robe.

They don’t escalate. They inherit.

– DeadSwitch
“Fear the silence. Fear the switch.”

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