Quick answer

In the “Files with Interesting Permissions” section, LinPEAS lists SUID and SGID binaries and highlights ones with known abuse paths. A red/yellow SUID line is a high-priority lead — but you still confirm the binary is actually exploitable in your context before acting.

Where it appears#

SUID/SGID checks live in the Files with Interesting Permissions section (the interesting_perms_files target for -o). LinPEAS enumerates set-UID and set-GID binaries and compares them against a list of binaries with known privilege-escalation techniques.

How to read it#

  • Red/yellow — a binary with a known abuse path (e.g. find can run commands). Check first.
  • Red — suspicious or non-standard; worth investigating.
  • Green — a common SUID binary matched by name (e.g. passwd). Not automatically safe, but usually expected.
Highlight ≠ exploit

A highlighted SUID binary is only exploitable if its version and configuration allow it. pkexec, for instance, was famously exploitable via CVE-2021-4034 (PwnKit) but is fixed on patched systems. Verify the version.

Verify it yourself#

Reproduce the SUID/SGID enumeration
find / -perm -4000 -type f 2>/dev/null   # SUID
find / -perm -2000 -type f 2>/dev/null   # SGID
ls -l /usr/bin/find

Then check whether the specific binary has a known technique on GTFOBins, and read the concept guide: what is SUID?

Sources & references

  1. linPEAS README
  2. PEASS-ng release — reviewed 20260908-dffb9496
  3. HackTricks: Linux privilege escalation