Authorised user attacks the system resources using their password and login.

Although it is not an attack in itself, trust exploitation refers to an individual taking advantage of a trust relationship within a network.

An example of when a trust exploitation can take place is when a perimeter network is connected to a corporate network. These network segments often house DNS, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), and HTTP servers. Because these servers all reside on the same segment, a compromise of one system can lead to the compromise of other systems if those other systems in turn trust systems attached to the same network.

- CITC - NTS Support Centre