letterbomb


letterbomb

(messaging)1. An e-mail message containing live dataintended to do nefarious things to the recipient's computer orterminal. It is possible, for example, to send letterbombsthat will lock up some specific kinds of terminals when theyare viewed, so thoroughly that the user must turn the terminaloff to unwedge it. Under Unix, a letterbomb can also try toget part of its contents interpreted as a shell command. Theresults of this could range from silly to tragic.

See also Trojan horse; compare nastygram, talk bomb.

2. Loosely, a mailbomb.