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Glossary Term

Cloud Privilege Escalation

Misconfigured cloud roles or credentials let attackers escalate into powerful permissions.

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Cloud Privilege Escalation

1-minute read

What it is

Cloud Privilege Escalation occurs when attackers gain access to higher-level permissions in cloud environments by exploiting misconfigured roles, excessive privileges, or compromised credentials.

Why it matters

Elevated cloud privileges can grant attackers control over infrastructure, storage, logging, and identity systems, leading to large-scale breaches and service disruption.

How to reduce risk

  • Apply least-privilege access policies across identities, roles, and services
  • Monitor and audit role changes plus privilege escalations in real time
  • Regularly review permissions to remove dormant or overly broad access

Related Terms: Least Privilege, Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR), Orphaned Cloud Resources

External Resources:

  • Cloud Security Alliance – Best Practices: https://cloudsecurityalliance.org