hacktricks/linux-unix/linux-privilege-escalation-checklist.md

---
description: Checklist for privilege escalation in Linux
---

# Checklist - Linux Privilege Escalation

{% hint style="danger" %}
Do you use **Hacktricks every day**? Did you find the book **very** **useful**? Would you like to **receive extra help** with cybersecurity questions? Would you like to **find more and higher quality content on Hacktricks**?\
[**Support Hacktricks through github sponsors**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)** so we can dedicate more time to it and also get access to the Hacktricks private group where you will get the help you need and much more!**
{% endhint %}

If you want to know about my **latest modifications**/**additions** or you have **any suggestion for HackTricks **or** PEASS**, **join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/)[**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass), or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**\
If you want to **share some tricks with the community** you can also submit **pull requests** to [**https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) that will be reflected in this book and don't forget to** give ⭐** on **github** to **motivate** **me** to continue developing this book.

### **Best tool to look for Linux local privilege escalation vectors: **[**LinPEAS**](https://github.com/carlospolop/privilege-escalation-awesome-scripts-suite/tree/master/linPEAS)****

### [System Information](privilege-escalation/#system-information)

* [ ] Get** OS information**
* [ ] Check the [**PATH**](privilege-escalation/#path), any **writable folder**?
* [ ] Check [**env variables**](privilege-escalation/#env-info), any sensitive detail?
* [ ] Search for [**kernel exploits**](privilege-escalation/#kernel-exploits)** using scripts **(DirtyCow?)
* [ ] **Check **if the [**sudo version **is vulnerable](privilege-escalation/#sudo-version)
* [ ] ****[**Dmesg** signature verification failed](privilege-escalation/#dmesg-signature-verification-failed) error?
* [ ] More system enum ([date, system stats, cpu info, printers](privilege-escalation/#more-system-enumeration))
* [ ] [Enumerate more defenses](privilege-escalation/#enumerate-possible-defenses)

### [Drives](privilege-escalation/#drives)

* [ ] **List mounted **drives
* [ ] **Any unmounted drive?**
* [ ] **Any creds in fstab?**

### ****[**Installed Software**](privilege-escalation/#installed-software)****

* [ ] **Check for**[** useful software**](privilege-escalation/#useful-software)** installed**
* [ ] **Check for **[**vulnerable software**](privilege-escalation/#vulnerable-software-installed)** installed**

### ****[Processes](privilege-escalation/#processes)

* [ ] Is  any **unknown software running**?
* [ ] Is any software with **more privileges that it should have running**?
* [ ] Search for** exploits for running processes** (specially if running of versions)
* [ ] Can you **modify the binary** of any running process?
* [ ] **Monitor processes** and check if any interesting process is running frequently
* [ ] Can you **read **some interesting **process memory **(where passwords could be saved)?

### [Scheduled/Cron jobs?](privilege-escalation/#scheduled-jobs)

* [ ] Is the [**PATH **](privilege-escalation/#cron-path)being modified by some cron and you can **write **in it?
* [ ] Any [**wildcard **](privilege-escalation/#cron-using-a-script-with-a-wildcard-wildcard-injection)in a cron job?
* [ ] Some [**modifiable script** ](privilege-escalation/#cron-script-overwriting-and-symlink)is being **executed **or is inside **modifiable folder**?
* [ ] Have you detected that some **script **could be being [**executed **very **frequently**](privilege-escalation/#frequent-cron-jobs)? (every 1, 2 or 5 minutes)

### [Services](privilege-escalation/#services)

* [ ] Any **writable .service** file?
* [ ] Any **writable binary** executed by a **service**?
* [ ] Any **writable folder in systemd PATH**?

### [Timers](privilege-escalation/#timers)

* [ ] Any **writable timer**?

### [Sockets](privilege-escalation/#sockets)

* [ ] Any** writable .socket **file?
* [ ] Can you **communicate with any socket**?
* [ ] **HTTP sockets** with interesting info?

### [D-Bus](privilege-escalation/#d-bus)

* [ ] Can you **communicate with any D-Bus**?

### [Network](privilege-escalation/#network)

* [ ] Enumerate the network to know where you are
* [ ] **Open ports you couldn't access before** getting a shell inside the machine?
* [ ] Can you **sniff traffic** using `tcpdump`?

### [Users](privilege-escalation/#users)

* [ ] Generic users/groups **enumeration**
* [ ] Do you have a **very big UID**? Is the **machine** **vulnerable**?
* [ ] Can you [**escalate privileges thanks to a group**](privilege-escalation/interesting-groups-linux-pe/) you belong to?
* [ ] **Clipboard **data?
* [ ] Password Policy?
* [ ] Try to **use **every **known password **that you have discovered previously to login **with each **possible **user**. Try to login also without password.

### [Writable PATH](privilege-escalation/#writable-path-abuses)

* [ ] If you have** write privileges over some folder in PATH** you may be able to escalate privileges

### [SUDO and SUID commands](privilege-escalation/#sudo-and-suid)

* [ ] Can you execute **any comand with sudo**? Can you use it to READ, WRITE or EXECUTE anything as root? ([**GTFOBins**](https://gtfobins.github.io))
* [ ] Is any **exploitable suid binary**? ([**GTFOBins**](https://gtfobins.github.io))
* [ ] Are [**sudo **commands **limited **by **path**? can you **bypass **the restrictions](privilege-escalation/#sudo-execution-bypassing-paths)?
* [ ] ****[**Sudo/SUID binary without path indicated**](privilege-escalation/#sudo-command-suid-binary-without-command-path)?
* [ ] ****[**SUID binary specifying path**](privilege-escalation/#suid-binary-with-command-path)? Bypass
* [ ] ****[**LD_PRELOAD vuln**](privilege-escalation/#ld_preload)****
* [ ] ****[**Lack of .so library in SUID binary**](privilege-escalation/#suid-binary-so-injection)** **from a writable folder?
* [ ] ****[**SUDO tokens available**](privilege-escalation/#reusing-sudo-tokens)? [**Can you create a SUDO token**](privilege-escalation/#var-run-sudo-ts-less-than-username-greater-than)?
* [ ] Can you [**read or modify sudoers files**](privilege-escalation/#etc-sudoers-etc-sudoers-d)?
* [ ] Can you [**modify /etc/ld.so.conf.d/**](privilege-escalation/#etc-ld-so-conf-d)?
* [ ] [**OpenBSD DOAS**](privilege-escalation/#doas)** **command

### [Capabilities](privilege-escalation/#capabilities)

* [ ] Has any binary any **unexpected capability**?

### [ACLs](privilege-escalation/#acls)

* [ ] Has any file any **unexpected ACL**?

### [Open Shell sessions](privilege-escalation/#open-shell-sessions)

* [ ] **screen**?
* [ ] **tmux**?

### [SSH](privilege-escalation/#ssh)

* [ ] **Debian **[**OpenSSL Predictable PRNG - CVE-2008-0166**](privilege-escalation/#debian-openssl-predictable-prng-cve-2008-0166)****
* [ ] ****[**SSH Interesting configuration values**](privilege-escalation/#ssh-interesting-configuration-values)****

### [Interesting Files](privilege-escalation/#interesting-files)

* [ ] **Profile files** - Read sensitive data? Write to privesc?
* [ ] **passwd/shadow files** - Read sensitive data? Write to privesc?
* [ ] **Check commonly interesting folders** for sensitive data
* [ ] **Weird Localtion/Owned files, **you may have access or alter executable files
* [ ] **Modified **in last mins
* [ ] **Sqlite DB files**
* [ ] **Hidden files**
* [ ] **Script/Binaries in PATH**
* [ ] **Web files **(passwords?)
* [ ] **Backups**?
* [ ] **Known files that contains passwords**: Use **Linpeas **and **LaZagne**
* [ ] **Generic search**

### ****[**Writable Files**](privilege-escalation/#writable-files)****

* [ ] **Modify python library** to execute arbitrary commands?
* [ ] Can you **modify log files**? **Logtotten **exploit
* [ ] Can you **modify /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/**? Centos/Redhat exploit
* [ ] Can you [**write in ini, int.d, systemd or rc.d files**](privilege-escalation/#init-init-d-systemd-and-rc-d)?

### ****[**Other tricks**](privilege-escalation/#other-tricks)****

* [ ] Can you [**abuse NFS to escalate privileges**](privilege-escalation/#nfs-privilege-escalation)?
* [ ] Do you need to [**escape from a restrictive shell**](privilege-escalation/#escaping-from-restricted-shells)?

If you want to **know **about my **latest modifications**/**additions** or you have **any suggestion for HackTricks or PEASS**,** **join the [💬](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/)** **[**PEASS & HackTricks telegram group here**](https://t.me/peass), or** follow me on Twitter **[🐦](https://emojipedia.org/bird/)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**\
****If you want to** share some tricks with the community **you can also submit **pull requests **to** **[**https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks)** **that will be reflected in this book.\
Don't forget to **give ⭐ on the github** to motivate me to continue developing this book.

![](<../.gitbook/assets/68747470733a2f2f7777772e6275796d6561636f666665652e636f6d2f6173736574732f696d672f637573746f6d5f696d616765732f6f72616e67655f696d672e706e67 (6) (4) (3).png>)

​[**Buy me a coffee here**](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/carlospolop)****