The other type of privilege escalation is vertical privilege escalation. It consists of more demanding privilege escalation techniques and includes the use of hacking tools. It is complex, but not impossible, since an attacker is forced to perform admin-or kernel-level operations in order to elevate access rights illegally. Vertical rights escalation is more difficult but it is also more rewarding since the attacker can acquire system rights on a system. A system user has more rights than an administrator and, therefore, can do more damage. The attacker also has a higher chance of staying and performing actions on a network system whilst remaining undetected. With superuser access rights, an attacker can perform actions that the administrator cannot stop or interfere with. Vertical escalation techniques differ from system to system. In Windows, a common practice is to cause a buffer overflow to achieve vertical privilege escalation. This has already been witnessed in a tool called EternalBlue which is alleged to be one of the hacking tools in the possession of the NSA. The tool has however been made public by a hacking group called the Shadow Brokers.

On Linux, vertical escalation is done by allowing attackers to have root privileges that enable them to modify systems and programs. On Mac, vertical escalation is done in a process called jailbreaking, allowing the hackers to perform previously disallowed operations. These are operations that manufacturers restrict users from so as to protect the integrity of their devices and operating systems. Vertical escalation is also done on web-based tools. This is normally through the exploitation of the code used in the backend. At times, system developers unknowingly leave channels that can be exploited by hackers, especially during the submission of forms.