retrovirus

From retro- + virus, from its reverse direction of replication.

(computer security) A computer virus that seeks to attack antivirus programs in an attempt to avoid detection.


worm

From Middle English worm, werm, wurm, wirm, from Old English wyrm (“worm, snake”), from Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wr̥mis, possibly from *wer- (“to turn”). Doublet of vermin and wyrm, the latter of which is a fairly recent borrowing directly from the Old English.
(computing): First computer usage by John Brunner in his 1975 book The Shockwave Rider.
cognates
Germanic cognates include Dutch worm, West Frisian wjirm, German Wurm, Swedish orm (“snake”), Norwegian Nynorsk orm (“earthworm or snake”), Danish orm and Yiddish וואָרעם (vorem).
Indo-European cognates include Latin vermis (“worm”), Lithuanian var̃mas (“insect, midge”), Albanian rrime (“rainworm”), Ancient Greek ῥόμος (rhómos, “woodworm”).

шнек

something helical, especially the thread of a screw

When Trevor opened his worm email, it spread to 100 people in his address book.

(computing) A self-replicating malware that propagates through a network.


computer virus

en-noun

computer virus (plural computer viruses or (proscribed) computer viri or (rare, chiefly non-native speakers’ English) computer vira)

computer viruses (plural)
computer viri (plural proscribed)
computer vira (English plural rare)

(computing) A program which can covertly transmit itself between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as disks and USB drives, often causing damage to systems and data.


virus

virus (countable and uncountable, plural viruses or (rare) virusses or (rare) vira or (proscribed) viri or (proscribed) virii)

viruses (plural)
virusses (plural rare)
vira (plural rare)
viri (plural proscribed)
virii (plural proscribed)

→ Amharic: ቫይረስ (vayräs)

→ Bengali: ভাইরাস (bhairaś)

→ Burmese: ဗိုင်းရပ်စ် (buing:rapc)

→ Dhivehi: ވައިރަސް (vairas)

→ Hindi: वायरस (vāyras)

→ Japanese: バイラス (bairasu)

→ Kannada: ವೈರಸ್ (vairas)

→ Korean: 바이러스 (baireoseu)

→ Lao: ໄວຣັສ (wai rat)

→ Malay: virus

→ Malayalam: വൈറസ് (vaiṟasŭ)

→ Maltese: vajrus

→ Sinhalese: වෛරස (wairasa)

→ Telugu: వైరస్ (vairas)

→ Thai: ไวรัส (wai-rát)

desc

→ Urdu: وائرس

→ Urdu: وائرس

From Middle English virus, from Latin vīrus (“poison, slime, venom”), via rhotacism from Proto-Italic *weizos, from Proto-Indo-European *wisós (“fluidity, slime, poison”). First use in the computer context by David Gerrold in his 1972 book When HARLIE Was One.

der

Wait a minute! Is this one of those virus emails?!

2004 November 15, Michael Chapman; Matthew Chapman, “Strong Bad Email #118: virus”, in Homestar Runner, spoken by Strong Bad (Matthew Chapman):

(computing) A type of malware which can covertly transmit itself between computers via networks (especially the Internet) or removable storage such as disks, often causing damage to systems and data; also computer virus.

(computing, proscribed) Any type of malware.


adware

(computing) A software application that includes advertisements, which are displayed while the software is running. Developers use adware as a source of income and to keep the costs of the software down (usually making it free). Some adware programs can include spyware.


spyware

In the end of the 90s we call^([sic]) this software spyware, there was a term for it, and now we don't use this term anymore because most of the software that we use is spyware […]

2017 December, 5:24 from the start, in Interview with hacktivist Jaromil, ArtEZ studium generale:

(Internet) Programs that surreptitiously monitor and report the actions of a computer user.


key logger

(computing) Software or hardware designed to record keyboard entries, often for the purpose of stealing passwords or other sensitive data.

näppäinnauhuri

software or hardware designed to record keystrokes


malware

en-noun

malware (usually uncountable, plural malwares)

→ Amharic: ማልዌር (malwer)

→ Bengali: মালওয়্যার (malōẇyar)

→ Czech: malware

→ Danish: malware

→ Dutch: malware

→ French: malware; → maliciel (calque)

→ German: Malware

→ Hindi: मैलवेयर m (mailveyar)

→ Italian: malware

→ Japanese: マルウェア (maruwea)

→ Korean: 맬웨어 (maerweeo)

→ Macedonian: малвер m (malver)

→ Portuguese: malware

→ Romanian: malware

→ Serbo-Croatian: malver m

→ Slovak: malvér m

→ Spanish: malware

→ Tagalog: malware

→ Thai: มัลแวร์ (mal-wɛɛ)

Blend of malicious + software or from mal- + -ware.

In a follow-up attack that hit Kyiv’s power grid a year later, the suspects used a second piece of malware, called Industroyer, to cut power for an hour, the indictment said. The malware, according to experts, posed one of the greatest digital threats to critical infrastructure since Stuxnet, the computer attack by the United States and Israel that took out Iran’s uranium centrifuges in 2009.

2020 October 19, “U.S. Charges Russian Intelligence Officers in Major Cyberattacks”, in New York Times:

(computing) Software which has been designed to operate in a malicious, undesirable manner.

skadelike programmatuur

software developed to cause harm to a computer system


back door

Scoring three goals at home should guarantee you three points, but when you go on the attack a little bit more, you leave the back door open. That's not always a good idea with this team.

2021 November 29, Alan Shearer, “Why Newcastle have to win their next two games to give them hope of staying in the Premier League - Alan Shearer analysis”, in BBC Sport:

A means of access, often secret and unprotected, to something.

(computer security) A secret means of access to a program or system.


back door

en-verb

back door (third-person singular simple present back doors, present participle back dooring, simple past and past participle back doored)

back doors (present singular third-person)
back dooring (participle present)
back doored (participle past)
back doored (past)

Now that we have backdoored the notepad.exe binary, we will go back to the Meterpreter session and upload our backdoor: 3. Then, we need to start a listener so we. meterpreter > upload notepad-backdoored.exe [*] uploading[…]

2018 February 26, Abhinav Singh, Nipun Jaswal, Monika Agarwal, Daniel Teixeira, Metasploit Penetration Testing Cookbook: Evade antiviruses, bypass firewalls, and exploit complex environments with the most widely used penetration testing framework, 3rd Edition, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 213:

As an example, the generation algorithm for backdoored Dual EC picks a fixed group element Q, a random exponent d, and outputs as public key the pair P = Qd and Q. The secret key is d. (We use multiplicative notation for simplicity.)[…]

2015 April 13, Elisabeth Oswald, Marc Fischlin, Advances in Cryptology – EUROCRYPT 2015: 34th Annual International Conference on the Theory and Applications of Cryptographic Techniques, Sofia, Bulgaria, April 26-30, 2015, Proceedings, Part I, Springer, →ISBN, page 103:

Back in the session, we will rename the httpd.exe file to httpd.exe.backup, upload the backdoored version, and rename it to httpd.exe: msf exploit(handler) > sessions -i 1 [*] Starting interaction with 1... meterpreter > cd[…]

2019 July 18, Gilberto Najera-Gutierrez, Juned Ahmed Ansari, Daniel Teixeira, Abhinav Singh, Improving your Penetration Testing Skills: Strengthen your defense against web attacks with Kali Linux and Metasploit, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 453:

(computer security) To add a backdoor (a secret means of access) to a program or system.


rootkit

(computer security) A set of software tools used by a third party to gain unauthorized access to a computer system and control the system while concealing itself from the user.


trojan

/ˈtɹəʊd͡ʒən/

/ˈtɹoʊd͡ʒən/

(computing) Malware that appears to perform or actually performs a desired task for a user while performing a harmful task without the user's knowledge or consent.


Trojan horse

Trojan horse (third-person singular simple present Trojan horses, present participle Trojan horsing, simple past and past participle Trojan horsed)

Trojan horses (present singular third-person)
Trojan horsing (participle present)
Trojan horsed (participle past)
Trojan horsed (past)

You will disarm a group or person that holds simplistic attitudes—about relationships, education, financial success, morality, business ethics, religion, raising children—by giving that group or person Trojan Horsed instructions seemingly about how to do something mundane and unrelated.

1999, Gary Hoffman, Glynis Hoffman, Adios, Strunk and White, 2nd edition, Huntington Beach, Calif.: Verve Press, →ISBN, page 180:

But still, despite my initial shock at being expected to do a grownup job for my new grown-up salary, I was determined to keep the dream alive to some extent, by ticking a few of the sensible boxes while Trojan Horsing (yes, as a verb) some dot com fun in the back […]

2008, Paul Carr, Bringing Nothing to the Party: True Confessions of a New Media Whore, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, →ISBN, page 88:

In its place arose a bilateral treaty that spelled out in basic terms that advances made in freedom of movement would be kept, under safeguards; free trade would be advanced bilaterally; goods imported from third countries would not be Trojan horsed; and countries would cooperate in areas of common interest.

2009, Lee Rotherham, Ten Years On: Britain without the European Union, →ISBN, page 88:


autodialer

(computing) malicious software, embedded in a website, that routes dial-up Internet connections to a different telephone number charged at a premium rate


badware

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-badware.wav


dialer

He treated his assistant as a voice-operated dialer.

A person or device that dials, as using a telephone.


scareware

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-scareware.wav

(computing, informal) Software that attempts to scare the user into compliance, as by displaying false warnings of virus infection.


ransomware

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-ransomware.wav

The amount of money generated by ransomware schemes would appear to be quite small given their lack of popularity and the asking price in ransom notes […]

2008, Markus Jakobsson, Zulfikar Ramzan, Crimeware: Understanding New Attacks and Defenses, page 375:

Garmin has been forced to shut down its call centres, website and some other online services after a ransomware attack encrypted the smartwatch maker’s internal network and some production systems.

2020 July 24, Mark Sweney, “Smartwatch maker Garmin hit by outages after ransomware attack”, in The Guardian:

Last March, Trenitalia, the Italian state-owned railway, suffered a major ransomware attack on its ticketing system, which disrupted sales at stations as well as passenger information screens.

2023 March 22, Christian Wolmar, “Cybersecurity concerns highlight a range of potential risks”, in RAIL, number 979, page 33:

(computer security) Malware that holds the data of a computer user for ransom, usually requiring or claiming to require payment to restore access.

[I]n some situations, the source code of COTS may be escrowed and released under a free software or open source license when the original developer (or supplier) no longer continues to develop that software or if stipulated fundraising conditions are met. This model is referred to as the ransom model of software publishing and the software is known as ransomware.

2013, Mano Paul, Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CSSLP CBK, Second Edition, page 622:

(computer security, derogatory) Software that is released as open source only in exchange for payment.


crimeware

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-crimeware.wav

Technical subterfuge schemes plant crimeware onto PCs to steal credentials […]

2007, Harold F Tipton, Micki Krause, Information Security Management Handbook, Volume 2:

(computing) Software that performs or facilitates illegal activities.


riskware

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-riskware.wav

(computing, rare) software that may pose a risk to a computer on which it is installed


cryptovirus

From crypto- (prefix meaning ‘cryptographic’) + virus.

prefix

/ˈkɹɪptəʊˌvaɪɹəs/

(computer security) A type of malware that is used for extortion by encrypting user files and asking for payment in exchange for the decryption key.


tarbomb

(computing, slang) A tarball (archive file) containing numerous files that are extracted into the working directory, potentially causing inconvenience by overwriting other files or mixing up files from different sources.


PUP

(computing) Acronym of potentially unwanted program: software that most computer users do not want on their computers, such as adware.


PUP

(computing) Initialism of Private Use Plane: either of the two Unicode planes (planes 15 and 16) reserved for private use.


cryptoworm

(cryptography, computer security) A form of malware that spreads in the form of a worm and encrypts victims' data.


zip bomb

(computing) A malicious zip file designed to produce a very large output, and consume a great deal of processing resources, during decompression.


cryptoransomware

en-noun

cryptoransomware (usually uncountable, plural cryptoransomwares)


XML bomb

(computer security) A malicious XML file designed to consume a lot of memory as a result of the expansion of entities within the markup during parsing.


infostealer

While spyware's purpose is quite similar to infostealer's, this category is broader and may also include video and audio recording capabilities or tracking the victim's location with GPS.

2022, Alexey Kleymenov, Amr Thabet, Mastering Malware Analysis, Packt Publishing Ltd, →ISBN, page 8:

(computer security) A piece of malware that steals personal data.