Logging in as root for daily work is risky: every typo runs with full power, and actions are not tied to a person. Instead, administrators use normal accounts and elevate privileges only when needed, following the principle of least privilege. Linux+ tests the tools for this and calls it privilege escalation; in security reports the same phrase also describes an attacker gaining more rights than intended, often by abusing a badly written sudo rule, so the two meanings are closely linked.
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