PEASS-ng is an automated penetration testing framework designed to identify privilege escalation vectors on local systems. It functions as a security assessment utility that scans environments for misconfigurations, sensitive files, and insecure permissions to uncover paths for unauthorized privilege elevation.
The project distinguishes itself through a modular script-based enumeration engine that adapts to the target environment. It utilizes environment-aware capability detection and cross-platform shell abstraction to normalize data collection across diverse operating systems, while operating primarily within volatile memory to minimize its forensic footprint.
The framework covers a broad range of post-exploitation assessment tasks, including automated security auditing for both Linux and Windows environments. It employs pattern-matching heuristic analysis to systematically query system configurations and identify security gaps during authorized security assessments.