What does privilege escalation entail in system security?

• A. Gaining lower privileges to reduce risk.
• B. Gaining higher access rights than originally granted.
• C. Disabling authentication on the system.
• D. Installing a security patch.

Answer: (B)

Privilege escalation means moving from the level of access you are authorized for to a higher level of access than was originally granted. It typically involves obtaining admin/root privileges or other elevated rights, allowing actions that the initial account couldn’t perform. This is the essence of the concept: gaining higher access rights than what was granted.

The other statements don’t fit because they describe either reducing privileges, bypassing authentication (breaking access controls), or applying a patch (a defensive or maintenance action), none of which capture the act of increasing privileges beyond the original grant.