TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-to-Time-of-Use)

Time-of-Check-to-Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race conditions represent a critical vulnerability in the Deepening Control phase where attackers exploit timing discrepancies between system resource verification and utilization. During Privilege Escalation attempts, attackers identify scenarios where a privileged process checks access permissions or validates a resource at one moment (time-of-check), but actual resource usage occurs at a later time (time-of-use), creating a window of opportunity. By manipulating the resource state during this interval, attackers can cause the privileged process to operate on an altered resource, potentially executing operations with elevated permissions. Common TOCTOU targets include file operations, memory access, and privilege verification routines, where attackers may use techniques such as symbolic link manipulation, file content swapping, or resource race triggering to elevate privileges from a lower-privileged context to gain deeper system access. Successful exploitation allows attackers to execute arbitrary code with escalated privileges, potentially achieving complete system compromise.