letterbomb
1. n. A piece of email containing
live data intended to do nefarious things to the recipient's
machine or terminal. It used to be possible, for example, to send
letterbombs that would lock up some specific kinds of terminals when
they are viewed, so thoroughly that the user must cycle power (see
cycle, sense 3) to unwedge them. Under Unix, a letterbomb can
also try to get part of its contents interpreted as a shell command
to the mailer. The results of this could range from silly to
tragic; fortunately it has been some years since any of the standard
Unix/Internet mail software was vulnerable to such an attack
(though, as the Melissa virus attack demonstrated in early 1999,
Microsoft systems can have serious problems). See also
Trojan horse; compare nastygram. 2. Loosely, a
mailbomb.
1. n. A piece of email containing
live data intended to do nefarious things to the recipient's
machine or terminal. It used to be possible, for example, to send
letterbombs that would lock up some specific kinds of terminals when
they are viewed, so thoroughly that the user must cycle power (see
cycle, sense 3) to unwedge them. Under Unix, a letterbomb can
also try to get part of its contents interpreted as a shell command
to the mailer. The results of this could range from silly to
tragic; fortunately it has been some years since any of the standard
Unix/Internet mail software was vulnerable to such an attack
(though, as the Melissa virus attack demonstrated in early 1999,
Microsoft systems can have serious problems). See also
Trojan horse; compare nastygram. 2. Loosely, a
mailbomb.
Related:
- letterbomb: 1. n. A piece of {email} containing {live data}
intended to do nefarious things to the recipient's machine or
terminal
It is possible, for example, to send letterbombs that... - plan file n.
[Unix] On systems that support finger
the `.plan' file in a user's home directory is displayed... - mailbomb
(also mail bomb) [Usenet] 1. v. To send
or urge others to send, massive amounts of email... - mailbomb: (also mail bomb) [USENET] 1. v. To send, or urge
others to send
massive amounts of {email} to a single system or ... - live data n.
1. Data that is written to be interpreted and
takes over program flow when triggered by some un-obvious
operation
such as viewing it. One use of such hacks is to break... - live data: n. 1. Data that is written to be interpreted and takes
over program flow when triggered by some un-obvious operation
such as viewing it. One use of such hacks is to... - nastygram /nas'tee-gram/ n.
1. A protocol packet or item
of email (the latter is also called a letterbomb) that takes
advantage of misfeatures or security holes on the target system to
do untoward things
2. Disapproving mail, esp. from a net.god, pursuant... - nastygram: /nas'tee-gram/ n. 1. A protocol packet or item of
email (the latter is also called a {letterbomb}) that takes
advantage of misfeatures or security holes on the target system to
do untoward things
2. Disapproving mail, esp. from a {net.god}, pursuant... - spam vt.,vi.,n.
[from "Monty Python's Flying
Circus"] 1
To crash a program by overrunning a fixed-size buffer...
