Software Architect's Handbook

Elevation of Privilege

Elevation of Privilege (EoP) takes places when an attacker is able to gain authorization for operations beyond what was originally granted. For example, an attacker obtains read and write privileges for an application when they were initially only granted read privileges.

The dangerous aspect of this threat is the fact that the attacker is part of the trusted system itself. Depending on the privileges the attacker is able to obtain, they may be able to inflict a high level of damage.