Gaining Trusted or Privileged Access

Once initial access has been accomplished, the hacker will attempt to exploit any privileges associated with that access, including the ability to get into shared resources. If the initial account has limited access permissions, the hacker will try to gain administrator privileges (root inUNIX). With the higher privileges, the hacker can expand their influence by creating additional accounts they have access to, clean up any logs or history of their activities, and install additional tools for reconnaissance.