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Elevation of Privilege Threat Modeling Game

Transform Threat Modeling into an Engaging Team Activity

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What's the Elevation of Privilege Game?

Elevation of Privilege (EoP), created by Adam Shostack, is a game designed for developers that makes the process of threat modeling more approachable and engaging. Instead of working through lengthy checklists, players use a card game format to uncover vulnerabilities in the design stage of their development process, making security discussions more interactive and collaborative.

What's in the deck?

There are 88 cards in the deck, with 78 covering common security pitfalls to help players identify real threats. The cards follow the STRIDE framework, breaking down threats into six suits or key categories: Spoofing • Tampering • Repudiation • Information Disclosure • Denial of Service • Elevation of Privilege

Use the game with any team, in any industry. Perfect for Agile and DevOps workflows.

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How to play?

  • Start by sketching a simple diagram of the system on a whiteboard, paper, or digital tool, just enough to show key components and data flows.
  • Shuffle the deck and deal all the cards to 3-6 players.
  • The player with the 2 of Tampering kicks things off. Read your card aloud and describe if and how the threat could impact the system. Record the issue.
  • Play proceeds to the next player who picks a card from their hand that belongs to the same suit which in the first round is Tampering.
  • Each round, they must follow the suit that was led, with the highest-value card winning unless an Elevation of Privilege (EoP) card is played, in which case the highest EoP card wins. The round’s winner leads the next turn, and play continues until all cards are used.
  • After the game, the team reviews identified threats and discusses how to address them, turning gameplay insights into actionable security improvements.

Remote Teams? We've got you covered!

  • Send physical decks to each team member, making the most of our bulk pricing and multi-address fulfilment.
  • Use our online hand dealing tool Croupier to generate random hands for each player.
  • Email the hands to the players so they can pick out their cards from their decks ahead of the session and be ready to play.

Check out Croupier

Why teams love Elevation of Privilege

  • Discover 5 Reasons

  • 1. Perspective

    Developers focus to make things work. Finding security problems before they happen, requires them to see the whole system from a whole other perspective. The game prompts developers with specific security questions supporting creative and broad threat modeling.

  • 2. Inclusive Insights

    Games that draw developers and product people into security conversations can help unlock insights that no third party or automated tool will find. Elevation of Privilege can be played competitively, an incentive to speak up, or collaboratively, allowing insights to be combined.

  • 3. Engagement

    Reserach shows people are most productive in a flow state that balances challenge and comfort. The game design offers players choices, encouraging self-challenge, and creating a playful space where junior developers can safely question senior engineers and security experts.

  • 4. Early Feedback

    You can threat model as soon as you have a design on the whiteboard. You don't have to wait to "pentest" a finished solution. Early feedback gives you project management options, more predictable delivery, and helps eliminate wasteful rework.

  • 5. Real Work

    The game that produces real outcomes for as long as you play it. Players earn points for text-book security flaws that are found in your own system design; as well as missing test cases, and investigative work. No work. No points. No prizes! That's as real as it gets!

  • Bonus: Conflict Resolution

    Inclusive engagement. Upfront clarity. Playful collaboration, and friendly rivalry. It's a recipe for a smooth relationship.

    Defuse difficult deliveries and get back to working on business value, not office politics.

More Resources

  • How to Play the Elevation of Privilege (EoP) Threat Modeling Card Game

    Read more

  • Play to Learn EoP with the Game's Inventor Adam Shostack

    Play to Learn session

  • Dealing physical cards in remote Threat Modelling Games

    Read more
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