14 lines
788 B
Plaintext
14 lines
788 B
Plaintext
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 sends 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 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.
|