Privilege Escalation Mitigation via Historical Data Validation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing cybersecurity techniques fail to reliably verify the legitimacy of privileges granted to processes and users, making them vulnerable to privilege escalation attacks and malicious actions, as they rely on human prudence and assume legitimate permissions.
Innovation Solution
A system that securely performs privileged computing operations by determining whether an entity is properly associated with necessary privileges through historical data validation, using a privilege management server and secured processing elements to ensure legitimate access and minimize attack surfaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If existing privilege-based security measures are used, then processes can perform authorized operations, but attackers can still circumvent these measures through privilege escalation attacks
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of privilege legitimacy by examining historical data and event chains before allowing a privileged operation to execute. This advance checking prevents attackers from exploiting bugs or flaws to gain elevated access, as the system verifies whether the privilege assignment itself is legitimate rather than just checking if a process currently holds privileges.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary validation layer between the privilege holding process and the privileged operation. This intermediary checks historical data and event chains to determine whether the privilege was granted legitimately, creating a buffer that prevents direct exploitation of privilege escalation vulnerabilities.
2Reliability
If system administrator configurations and least-privinciple principles are used, then security risk is reduced, but the system relies on human prudence which is prone to mistakes
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs self-validation of privilege legitimacy by automatically examining historical data and event chains. This eliminates the need for human administrator prudence and manual configuration review, as the system independently verifies whether privileges were granted through legitimate means, reducing human error in security configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback loops that continuously monitor and validate privilege assignments against historical data. This feedback mechanism ensures that only legitimately granted privileges are executed, replacing human administrator judgment with automated verification that learns from and enforces established security patterns.
3Ease of operation
If processes with appropriate privileges are assumed to be legitimate, then operation simplicity is maintained, but malicious actions can still be performed using exploited privileges
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation of privilege legitimacy before allowing operations to execute. By checking historical data and event chains in advance, the system can prevent malicious actions even when processes hold appropriate privileges, without adding complexity to the operation execution itself.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary validation layer that sits between privilege holding and operation execution. This intermediary checks whether the privilege was granted legitimately through examination of historical data, filtering out malicious processes while allowing legitimate ones to proceed without additional complexity.
4Reliability
If historical data validation is performed to verify privilege legitimacy, then security against privilege escalation is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses a universal validation mechanism that handles multiple security functions through a single framework. The same historical data examination process validates privilege legitimacy, detects privilege escalation attempts, and ensures proper authorization, eliminating the need for separate complex validation systems for each function.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges privilege validation, historical data examination, and security decision-making into a unified process. By combining these functions into a single validation framework that examines event chains and historical data, the system reduces overall complexity compared to having separate validation systems for each security function.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed embodiments relate to systems and methods for performing privileged computing actions. Techniques include receiving an indication of a request by an entity to perform a privileged computing operation; determining whether the entity is associated with a privilege needed to perform the privileged computing operation; accessing historical data indicating at least one series of events leading to the entity being associated with the privilege; determining whether the entity is properly associated with the privilege; causing the privileged computing operation to be performed by a secured processing element; and causing a result of the privileged computing operation performed by the secured processing element to be provided to the entity.