You’re on a Linux box. You’ve got a shell. You’re probably not root. That’s the starting condition for 90% of real penetration tests. So how do you get there?

Linux privesc isn’t usually about exploiting a vulnerability. It’s about finding what the system administrator misconfigured.

Start with the basics: whoami, id, uname -a, cat /etc/passwd, ps aux. Look for anything running as root or by other users.

Part of the free Intro to Cyber course by Cover6 Solutions.