Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism

Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control elevated privileges to gain higher-level permissions. Most modern systems contain native elevation control mechanisms that are intended to limit privileges that a user can gain on a machine. Authorization has to be granted to specific users in order to perform tasks that are designated as higher risk. An adversary can use several methods to take advantage of built-in control mechanisms in order to escalate privileges on a system.

ID: T1626
Sub-techniques:  T1626.001
Tactic Type: Post-Adversary Device Access
Platforms: Android
MTC ID: APP-22
Version: 1.1
Created: 01 April 2022
Last Modified: 24 October 2025

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1013 Application Developer Guidance

Applications very rarely require administrator permission. Developers should be cautioned against using this higher degree of access to avoid being flagged as a potentially malicious application.

Detection Strategy

ID Name Analytic ID Analytic Description
DET0642 Detection of Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism AN1718

Application vetting services can detect when an application requests administrator permission.
When an application requests administrator permission, the user is presented with a popup and the option to grant or deny the request.