Enumerate IAM before you escalate

Cloud privilege escalation is rarely a memory bug. It is a permissions graph: which role can assume which role, which policy is too broad, which function runs as something more powerful than you.

aws sts get-caller-identity
aws iam list-attached-user-policies --user-name $(whoami 2>/dev/null || echo me)

Start by learning exactly what your current identity can do, then look for a single action, like iam:PassRole or lambda:UpdateFunctionCode, that quietly bridges you to a stronger one.