zombie

n. 1. [Unix] A process that has died but has not yet relinquished its
process table slot (because the parent process hasn't executed a wait (2)
for it yet). These can be seen in ps (1) listings occasionally. Compare
orphan. 2. A machine, especially someone's home box , that has been cracked
and is being used as part of a second-stage attack by miscreants trying to
mask their home IP address. Especially used of machines being exploited in
large gangs for a mechanized denial-of-service attack like Tribe Flood
Network; the image that goes with this is of a veritable army of zombies
mindlessly doing the bidding of a necromancer.

