2014-04-26 10:52:28 -04:00
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letterbomb
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2014-04-26 11:54:15 -04:00
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1. n. A piece of email containing live data intended to do nefarious things
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to the recipient's machine or terminal. It used to be possible, for example,
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to send s that would lock up some specific kinds of terminals when they are
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viewed, so thoroughly that the user must cycle power (see cycle , sense 3)
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to unwedge them. Under Unix, a can also try to get part of its contents
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interpreted as a shell command to the mailer. The results of this could
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range from silly to tragic; fortunately it has been some years since any of
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the standard Unix/Internet mail software was vulnerable to such an attack
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(though, as the Melissa virus attack demonstrated in early 1999, Microsoft
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systems can have serious problems). See also Trojan horse ; compare
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nastygram. 2. Loosely, a mailbomb.
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