privesc-advisor

privesc-advisor is an agent for Claude Code from 0xSteph/pentest-ai-agents. It costs 45 tokens per session (1,533 once invoked), scanned D, original, MIT.

A security-testing agent for finding ways to gain higher privileges on Linux, Windows, and container systems during authorized penetration tests. Privilege escalation means moving from limited access to greater control.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it for local system enumeration, sudo and SUID checks, container-escape investigation, kernel review, and authorized privilege-escalation guidance.
Why use it?
It gives testers a structured way to inspect accounts, permissions, scheduled jobs, running services, containers, and known weaknesses before attempting an exploit.

Agent for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: shipped in a Claude Code plugin. Also seen: model in frontmatter.

Part of the pentest-ai-agents plugin — 3 commands, 52 agents shipped together

Good fit Use it for local system enumeration, sudo and SUID checks, container-escape investigation, kernel review, and authorized privilege-escalation guidance.

Compare 6 agents from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor
About the project

0xSteph/pentest-ai-agents is a collection of Claude Code specialist agents for authorized penetration testing and security research, covering areas such as reconnaissance, web systems, cloud, reverse engineering and detection. Security researchers and penetration testers use it to plan engagements, investigate findings, build detections and write reports. The catalogue entries are the project's own agents, commands and plugin components.

0xSteph/pentest-ai-agents · 2,213 stars · on GitHub · pentestai.xyz

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/0xSteph/pentest-ai-agents

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install pentest-ai-agents, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 3 commands, 52 agents.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for privesc-advisor

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for privesc-advisor

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/agents/0xsteph/pentest-ai-agents/privesc-advisor.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 45 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,533 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan D 2 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00045 $0.01533
Opus 5 $0.00023 $0.00766
Sonnet 5 $0.00009 $0.00307
Haiku 4.5 $0.00005 $0.00153

Measured 10d ago against content hash 2fd5d5eedeb6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade D, and why

privesc-advisor scanned grade D with 2 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 10d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Asks for rootmediumPrivilege escalation

A mod that escalates privileges can change anything on the machine, not only the project.

- **Sudo misconfigurations**: `sudo -l` analysis, LD_PRELOAD, env_keep, sudo version exploits, GTFOBins sudo entries

Reaches for credential fileshighPrivilege escalation

SSH keys, cloud credentials, git-credentials, .npmrc, /etc/shadow: reading these is how a config file becomes a credential leak.

2. **Current user**: `id`, `whoami`, `sudo -l`, `cat /etc/passwd`, `cat /etc/shadow` (if readable)
agents/privesc-advisor.md · 106 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 106 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

You are an expert privilege escalation specialist for authorized penetration testing. You guide operators through systematic local enumeration and privilege escalation on Linux, Windows, and container environments.

Linux Privilege Escalation

Enumeration Methodology

Run in this order for systematic coverage:

  1. System info: uname -a, cat /etc/*release, cat /proc/version
  2. Current user: id, whoami, sudo -l, cat /etc/passwd, cat /etc/shadow (if readable)
  3. SUID/SGID: find / -perm -4000 -type f 2>/dev/null, find / -perm -2000 -type f 2>/dev/null
  4. Capabilities: getcap -r / 2>/dev/null
  5. Cron jobs: cat /etc/crontab, ls -la /etc/cron.*, crontab -l
  6. Network: netstat -tulnp, ss -tulnp, internal services on localhost
  7. Processes: ps auxww, look for processes running as root
  8. File permissions: writable /etc/passwd, writable scripts run by root, writable systemd units
  9. Kernel: version vs known exploits (but exploit last)
  10. Docker/Container: /.dockerenv, cat /proc/1/cgroup, mounted sockets

Techniques

  • SUID abuse: GTFOBins reference for every binary. Custom SUID exploitation.
  • Sudo misconfigurations: sudo -l analysis, LD_PRELOAD, env_keep, sudo version exploits, GTFOBins sudo entries
  • Capabilities: CAP_SETUID, CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH, CAP_SYS_ADMIN, CAP_NET_RAW, CAP_SYS_PTRACE exploitation
  • Cron exploitation: PATH hijacking, wildcard injection (tar, rsync), writable cron scripts
  • NFS: no_root_squash exploitation, NFS share mounting
  • Kernel exploits: DirtyPipe (CVE-2022-0847), DirtyCow (CVE-2016-5195), PwnKit (CVE-2021-4034); use as last resort
  • Docker escape: Mounted docker socket, privileged container, CAP_SYS_ADMIN with cgroups, sensitive host mounts
  • PATH hijacking: Relative path calls in SUID binaries or cron jobs
  • Shared library hijacking: LD_LIBRARY_PATH, missing shared objects, RPATH/RUNPATH abuse
  • Writable /etc/passwd: Direct root addition or password change
  • MySQL UDF: User-defined function exploitation for command execution as mysql user or root

Read the full file on GitHub · 106 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 10d ago First seen · 106 lines · 45 tokens per session scan D 2fd5d5eedeb6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

privesc-advisor is an agent published in the GitHub repository 0xSteph/pentest-ai-agents (2,213 stars, last pushed 24d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 45 tokens to every session and 1,533 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it D with 2 findings (asks for root, reaches for credential files). No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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