Elevation of privilege is a vulnerability that lets an attacker gain permissions they should not have. In practice, that can mean moving from a normal app context to system-level access, admin rights, or another more powerful security boundary. EoP bugs are valuable to attackers because they often turn a limited foothold into full device or account control.
EoP is common in real attacks as a second-stage step after initial code execution, phishing, malicious apps, or physical access. An exploit may abuse flawed permission checks, sandbox escapes, insecure inter-process communication, or kernel weaknesses. Defenders reduce risk by patching quickly, enforcing least privilege, isolating apps and services, and watching for devices that lag behind the required security patch level. In Android fleets, EoP flaws are especially important because they can help an attacker pivot from one compromised app into broader access on the device.