Exam SY0-501 topic 1 question 76 discussion

gibson: privilege escalation --The process of gaining elevated rights and permissions. Malware typically uses a variety of techniques to gain elevated privileges. buffer overflow--- An error that occurs when an application receives more input, or different input, than it expects. It exposes system memory that is normally inaccessible.

A, not buffer overflow because it accesses restricted areas of OS not memory.

I think it depends on how you define "areas of the OS". Memory isn't necessarily part of the OS, but the OS runs in memory. As such, gaining access to restricted areas in the memory ultimately provides access to restricted areas of the OS. It's crap wording; hard to say what angle they're looking for. Both A and D are equally correct to me.

The answer would be D if they had given restricted area of the memory but the catch here is restricted are of the OS so the answer should be A

"Restricted areas", only accessible by using higher privileges.

this discussion session is more confusing. I wish these material providers hire a professor who can explain every answer instead of every sharing their limited thoughts and knowledge

Privilege escalation is the act of exploiting a bug, design flaw or configuration oversight in an operating system or software application to gain elevated access to resources that are normally protected from an application or user.

A, (i.e. compromised Admin acct, restricted areas of the OS)

D. Buffer Overflows always require an INTERACTIVE app issuing a prompt which fails to check for response length. with Privilege Escalation hackers can use a NON-INTERACTIVE program (application) to gain access. Privilege escalation happens when a malicious user exploits a bug, design flaw, or configuration error in an APPLICATION (either a batch program or an interactive program) or OPERATING SYSTEM utility program to gain elevated access to resources that should normally be unavailable to that user. They expand their privileges by taking over another account and misusing the legitimate privileges granted to the other user - or they attempt to gain more permissions or access with an existing ACCOUNT they have compromised. https://www.cynet.com/cyber-attacks/privilege-escalation/

"restricted areas of the OS"... need to use Privilege escalation

D. A buffer overflow occurs a hacker appends their executable code or commands to the end of a reply to a prompt from an interactive app - and the reply exceeds the expected length, causing the code or commands to execute within restricted areas of memory. The OS segments its memory, confining each executing task with an authorized area. The buffer overflow causes an intrusion into unauthorized/restricted memory.