How does a Hijacking a privileged process attack work?

It typically unfolds over 3 phases. It begins with: [Find process with elevated priveleges] The adversary probes for processes running with elevated privileges.

What weaknesses does CAPEC-234 target?

CAPEC-234 exploits 2 CWE weaknesses, including CWE-648 (Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs), CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource).

How severe is CAPEC-234?

MITRE rates CAPEC-234 as Medium severity.

Standard attack pattern

Draft

CAPEC-234: Hijacking a privileged process

An adversary gains control of a process that is assigned elevated privileges in order to execute arbitrary code with those privileges. Some processes are assigned elevated privileges on an operating system, usually through association with a particular user, group, or role. If an attacker can hijack this process, they will be able to assume its level of privilege in order to execute their own code.

Last updated June 1, 2026

Medium

Typical severity

Per MITRE

Not rated

Likelihood of attack

Per MITRE

Related weaknesses

CWEs this targets

Standard

Abstraction

MITRE classification

Overview

CAPEC-234 (Hijacking a privileged process) is a standard-level attack pattern catalogued by MITRE in the Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC). It describes a recurring method attackers use to exploit software weaknesses.

How the attack works

The phases an attacker typically follows to carry out this attack.

Step 1
Explore
[Find process with elevated priveleges] The adversary probes for processes running with elevated privileges.
- On Windows, use the process explorer's security tab to see if a process is running with administror privileges.
- On Linux, use the ps command to view running processes and pipe the output to a search for a particular user, or the root user.
Step 2
Experiment
[Find vulnerability in running process] The adversary looks for a vulnerability in the running process that would allow for arbitrary code execution with the privilege of the running process.
- Look for improper input validation
- Look for a buffer overflow which may be exploited if an adversary can inject unvalidated data.
- Utilize system utilities that support process control that have been inadequately secured
Step 3
Exploit
[Execute arbitrary code] The adversary exploits the vulnerability that they have found and hijacks the running process.

What the attacker needs

Prerequisites

The targeted process or operating system must contain a bug that allows attackers to hijack the targeted process.

Resources required

None: No specialized resources are required to execute this type of attack.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about CAPEC-234.

What is CAPEC-234?: An adversary gains control of a process that is assigned elevated privileges in order to execute arbitrary code with those privileges. Some processes are assigned elevated privileges on an operating system, usually through association with a particular user, group, or role. If an attacker can hijack this process, they will be able to assume its level of privilege in order to execute their own code.
How does a Hijacking a privileged process attack work?: It typically unfolds over 3 phases. It begins with: [Find process with elevated priveleges] The adversary probes for processes running with elevated privileges.
What weaknesses does CAPEC-234 target?: CAPEC-234 exploits 2 CWE weaknesses, including CWE-648 (Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs), CWE-732 (Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource).
How severe is CAPEC-234?: MITRE rates CAPEC-234 as Medium severity.

References

Attack-pattern data is sourced from the MITRE CAPEC catalog (v3.9). Weakness associations link to the corresponding CWE entries on RadicalNotion.AI.

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