Horizontal privilege escalation

Horizontal privilege escalation, on the other hand, is simpler since it allows a user to use the same privileges gained from the initial access.

A good example is where an attacker has been able to steal the login credentials of an administrator of a network. The administrator account already has high privileges that the attacker assumes immediately after accessing it.

Horizontal privilege also occurs when an attacker is able to access protected resources using a normal user account. A good example is where a normal user is erroneously able to access the account of another user. This is normally done through session and cookie theft, cross-site scripting, guessing weak passwords, and logging keystrokes.

At the end of this phase, the attacker normally has well-established remote access entry points into a target system. The attacker might also have access to the accounts of several users. The attacker also knows how to avoid detection from security tools that the target might have. This leads to the next phase, called exfiltration.