A privilege flow oriented intrusion detection method based on HSMM (Hidden semi-Markov Model) is discussed. The privilege flow model and HSMM are incorporated in the implementation of an anomaly detection IDS (Intrusion Detection System). Using the data set of DARPA 1998, our experiment results reveal good detection performance and acceptable computation cost. A privilege flow oriented intrusion detection method based on HSMM (Hidden semi-Markov Model) is discussed. The privilege flow model and HSMM are incorporated in the implementation of an anomaly detection IDS (Intrusion Detection System). Using the data set of DARPA 1998, our experiment results reveal good detection performance and acceptable computation cost.