Episode 7 — Recognize privilege escalation patterns unique to cloud identity and policy systems

This episode explains how cloud privilege escalation often happens through identity, policy, and role assumptions rather than local exploitation. You’ll learn core concepts like permissions boundaries, role chaining, delegated administration, and policy evaluation logic that can create unintended paths to higher privilege. We’ll use practical examples, such as overly broad wildcard actions, pass-role style abuse, and mis-scoped permissions on automation identities, to show how escalation becomes possible even without touching an operating system. You’ll also cover troubleshooting steps: how to reason about “who can grant what,” how to identify high-risk permission combinations, and how to spot escalation clues in control-plane logs. By the end, you’ll have a repeatable way to analyze privilege graphs and reduce escalation opportunities through least privilege and tighter change controls. Produced by BareMetalCyber.com, where you’ll find more cyber audio courses, books, and information to strengthen your educational path. Also, if you want to stay up to date with the latest news, visit DailyCyber.News for a newsletter you can use, and a daily podcast you can commute with.