In STRIDE threat modeling, which category covers risks where an attacker can perform actions with more privileges than allowed?

• A. Spoofing
• B. Tampering
• C. Repudiation
• D. Elevation of Privilege

Answer: (D)

Elevation of Privilege is when an attacker gains higher access rights than they should have. In STRIDE, this category covers exploits that allow someone to perform actions that require more privileges than their authenticated role should permit, such as a standard user executing admin-level commands or accessing restricted data by exploiting a vulnerability or misconfiguration. This directly matches the idea of doing things with more privileges than allowed. It’s different from spoofing (pretending to be someone else), tampering (modifying data), repudiation (dishing out or denying actions), or other threat types that don’t involve increasing privilege. Preventing these threats relies on proper access control, least-privilege enforcement, and patching known vulnerabilities to close privilege-escalation paths.