Privilege Escalation Methods

Name: Privilege Escalation Methods
Author: sickn33

Listed

sickn33·vlatest·security·MIT

This skill details various privilege escalation techniques, crucial for understanding and mitigating potential security vulnerabilities.

Repository

Install on your platform

Showing Claude Code. One command installs this skill into any of the agents below.

Run this in your project

terminal

$ npx skills add sickn33/agentic-awesome-skills --skill privilege-escalation-methods -a claude-code

Uses the open-source skills CLI and needs Node.js. Add -g to install it for your user instead of this project.

What we know about this skill

Publisher

sickn33

Taken from the source listing. We haven't verified who controls this account.

Install target

Live repository

Not pinned. Installing fetches whatever the repository holds at the time you run the command.

No human has reviewed this code. The checks below are a static scan of the files at one commit — nobody has run this skill or judged whether it works. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent, so read the source before you install it.

Automated safety checks

scanned 28 Sept 2026

This skill failed 1 of 6 checks. A failure is not proof of bad intent; it means something in the code needs a human to look at it before you run it.

Declares what it does: failed
No SKILL.md was found in the skill's directory.
SKILL.md exists, its frontmatter parses, and it declares a name and a description.
No undeclared network calls: passed
Makes no network calls.
Every host the skill dials — from its scripts, its config endpoints or the commands it tells the agent to run — is either well-known package and API infrastructure or declared in its own frontmatter. Links in documentation are not counted.
No obfuscated payloads: passed
No encoded or obfuscated payloads.
No base64, hex or compressed blob is decoded and then executed, and no encoded shell commands.
No credential access: passed
Reads no keys, tokens, keychains or credential files.
Neither the code nor the SKILL.md instructions read SSH keys, cloud credentials, keychains, token stores, browser cookie databases or dotfiles that hold secrets.
No pipe-to-shell installers: passed
No pipe-to-shell or download-and-run installers.
No `curl … | sh` pattern, in the code or in the instructions, that runs code fetched at run time.
Pinned to a commit: passed
Scanned sickn33/antigravity-awesome-skills at 5a4cdd9df8.
The exact upstream commit SHA that was scanned is recorded, so the result refers to specific bytes.

Commit: 5a4cdd9df8
Manifest: skills/privilege-escalation-methods/SKILL.md
Scanned: 0 files
Copies in repo: 3 — all of them scanned

This is a static scan, not a review. It reads the skill's files; it does not run them, and it cannot tell you whether the skill is any good or whether the code does what its description says. A skill runs with whatever access you give your agent.

What each check looks for →

About this skill

What it does

This skill provides detailed techniques for escalating privileges on compromised Linux and Windows systems, moving from a low-privileged user to root or administrator access. It focuses on methods used in penetration testing post-exploitation phases and red team operations, covering both Linux and Active Directory environments. The skill details specific exploits of misconfigured binaries, scheduled tasks (cron), and capabilities.

When to use it

During a penetration test after initial system compromise to gain higher privileges.
In red team exercises to simulate advanced persistent threat (APT) activities.
To understand potential vulnerabilities in systems with existing low-privilege access.
When investigating suspicious activity or unauthorized access on a system.

Key capabilities

Linux Privilege Escalation: Exploiting sudo binaries, abusing scheduled tasks (cron), and leveraging file capabilities.
GTFOBins exploitation: Provides examples of using common Linux binaries to escalate privileges.
Active Directory Attacks: Offers techniques for domain compromise when appropriate prerequisites are met.
Tool Integration: Requires tools like Mimikatz, PowerView, Responder, Impacket, and Rubeus (though the skill itself doesn't directly use them).

Example prompts

"Show me examples of how to escalate privileges on Linux using sudo binaries."
"What are some techniques for abusing cron jobs to gain root access?"
"Describe methods for privilege escalation in an Active Directory environment."
“Explain how I can use file capabilities to elevate my privileges.”

Tips & gotchas

Prerequisites: This skill requires initial low-privilege shell access on a target system and familiarity with Linux/Windows privilege models.
Tool Dependency: While the skill describes techniques, it relies on external tools like Mimikatz and PowerView for execution; these are not included within the skill itself.
Environment Specificity: The effectiveness of these methods depends heavily on the specific system configuration and installed software.