Acquiring administrative privileges is known as what?

• A. Vertical Privilege Escalation
• B. Horizontal Privilege Escalation
• C. Boot Sector Virus
• D. Ransomware

Answer: (A)

Vertical privilege escalation is when an attacker moves from a normal user level up to an administrator or root level, gaining higher privileges to access protected resources and perform restricted actions. This is the scenario described by “acquiring administrative privileges” because the goal is to elevate the current account’s rights, not just use a different account at the same level.

Horizontal privilege escalation would mean obtaining another account at the same privilege level, not increasing the level itself. The other options refer to malware types, which are not about increasing privileges: a boot sector virus targets the system’s boot process, and ransomware encrypts files for ransom, neither of which specifically describe elevating privileges.