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Trust Boundaries in System Design: Privilege Models and Bypass Risks

7 chapters · 31 lessons

1. 1. Modeling Trust Relationships as Attack Surfaces

   4 lessons

   Learn to deconstruct system architectures into trust boundaries and identify where privilege assumptions create exploitable seams.

2. 2. Inter-Process Communication and Privilege Delegation

   5 lessons

   Design IPC mechanisms that validate caller identity and enforce least-privilege access without introducing bypass opportunities.

3. 3. Code Signing, Entitlements, and Execution Policy

   4 lessons

   Understand how operating systems verify software identity and how attackers exploit gaps in signing and entitlement enforcement.

4. 4. Agent-Based Architecture: EDR, Monitoring, and Orchestration

   5 lessons

   Design agents that observe or control system behavior while resisting tampering, disablement, and impersonation attacks.

5. 5. Trust Boundaries in AI Pipelines and Prompt Systems

   4 lessons

   Apply privilege separation principles to AI systems where user input can impersonate system instructions or escalate access.

6. 6. Detection and Response: Telemetry for Trust Violations

   5 lessons

   Build monitoring systems that surface privilege boundary violations and detect impersonation attempts in real time.

7. 7. Designing for Defense in Depth: Layered Privilege Models

   4 lessons

   Combine architectural patterns, runtime validation, and monitoring to build systems where single trust failures do not cascade.