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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>letterbomb</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../L.html" title="L"/><link rel="previous" href="let-the-smoke-out.html" title="let the smoke out"/><link rel="next" href="lexer.html" title="lexer"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">letterbomb</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="let-the-smoke-out.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">L</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="lexer.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="letterbomb"/><dt xmlns="" id="letterbomb"><b>letterbomb</b></dt></dt><dd><p> 1. <span class="grammar">n.</span> A piece of
<a href="../E/email.html"><i class="glossterm">email</i></a> containing <a href="live-data.html"><i class="glossterm">live data</i></a>
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 <a href="../C/cycle.html"><i class="glossterm">cycle</i></a>, 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
<a href="../T/Trojan-horse.html"><i class="glossterm">Trojan horse</i></a>; compare <a href="../N/nastygram.html"><i class="glossterm">nastygram</i></a>. </p></dd><dd><p> 2. Loosely, a <a href="../M/mailbomb.html"><i class="glossterm">mailbomb</i></a>.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="let-the-smoke-out.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../L.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="lexer.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">let the smoke out </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> lexer</td></tr></table></div></body></html>