Horizontal Privilege Escalation refers to:

Horizontal Privilege Escalation refers to:

• A. Acquiring access to another account's files
• B. Gaining higher privileges within the same account
• C. Installing a botnet
• D. Modifying system BIOS

Answer: (A)

Horizontal Privilege Escalation happens when someone who already has access at a given level tries to access resources owned by another user at the same level, without increasing their own privileges. Think of a scenario where a user with normal access reads or edits files that belong to another user because the permissions aren’t properly restricted; that’s horizontal movement across accounts at the same privilege tier. The option describing acquiring access to another account’s files matches this idea directly. The other options describe different things. Gaining higher privileges within the same account is vertical escalation, where the attacker elevates their own rights rather than moving to another user’s resources. Installing a botnet is malware activity, not specifically about accessing data at the same privilege level. Modifying system BIOS involves firmware-level manipulation and persistence, not the act of access across user accounts at the same permission level.

Horizontal Privilege Escalation happens when someone who already has access at a given level tries to access resources owned by another user at the same level, without increasing their own privileges. Think of a scenario where a user with normal access reads or edits files that belong to another user because the permissions aren’t properly restricted; that’s horizontal movement across accounts at the same privilege tier. The option describing acquiring access to another account’s files matches this idea directly.

The other options describe different things. Gaining higher privileges within the same account is vertical escalation, where the attacker elevates their own rights rather than moving to another user’s resources. Installing a botnet is malware activity, not specifically about accessing data at the same privilege level. Modifying system BIOS involves firmware-level manipulation and persistence, not the act of access across user accounts at the same permission level.