What Every Hacker Calls It: A Comprehensive Glossary of Cyber Threats

1. Black Hat Attackers who hack for illegal purposes, usually for financial gain, destroying, stealing, or modifying data, or rendering networks unusable for authorized users. The term comes from classic Western films where villains wore black hats.

2. Backdoor Hidden "pipes" in a computer system that bypass login and password protection, rendering data protection ineffective.

3. Brute‑Force Attack Automated, high‑intensity attempts to guess every possible password in a system to gain unauthorized access.

4. Doxing Searching for and publishing personal information about an internet user.

5. Gray Hat Hackers who attack without personal or financial profit, often for political protest or to embarrass organizations.

6. IP Internet Protocol address, a computer's identifier or "fingerprint" used to track activity or locate a device.

7. Keylogging Recording the keys a user presses so attackers can capture login credentials and passwords.

8. Malware Programs designed to control or steal computer data.

9. Phishing Sending emails that appear to come from legitimate sources to trick recipients into revealing personal information such as passwords or credit‑card details.

10. Spoofing Altering a genuine email so it appears to come from another source, often to issue false instructions that compromise data security.

11. Spyware A type of malware that operates unnoticed on a computer and silently sends data to attackers.

12. Whaling Targeted phishing aimed at senior executives to obtain sensitive or embarrassing information such as salaries, private addresses, or phone numbers.

13. White Hat Hackers who use their skills for societal benefit, exposing vulnerabilities to help organizations improve security.

14. Vulnerability Defects or misconfigurations in software, hardware, or protocols that allow unauthorized access or damage. Common examples include SQL injection, weak passwords, remote command execution, and privilege‑escalation flaws.

15. Malicious Program Unauthorized programs installed and executed in an information system to achieve illicit goals.

<code>1. Trojan Horse
Trojan horses (or simply Trojans) aim to steal personal information or remotely control a computer. They consist of a controller and a controlled side, similar to the ancient Greek tactic.

2. Zombie Program
Zombie programs build large‑scale attack platforms. They can be IRC, HTTP, P2P, or other types based on communication protocols.

3. Worm
Self‑replicating programs that spread widely to consume system and network resources. Types include email worms, instant‑message worms, USB worms, and vulnerability‑exploiting worms.

4. Virus
Programs that infect files to destroy or alter data, disrupting normal system operation.

5. Ransomware
Malware that encrypts user data or devices and demands payment for decryption.

6. Mobile Internet Malware
Malicious software that operates on mobile devices without user consent, including fee‑stealing, data theft, remote control, and other harmful behaviors.

7. Others
Any malicious program not covered by the above categories.</code>

16. Difference Between Virus and Trojan Viruses self‑replicate and spread, while Trojans do not replicate but provide backdoors for remote control, data theft, and other malicious actions.

17. Honeypot Deceptive systems or services set up to lure attackers, allowing defenders to capture and analyze attack methods, tools, and intentions.

18. Dark Web A subset of the deep web that requires special browsers (e.g., .onion) and is often used for anonymous communication, data trading, and illicit activities.

19. Evasion (Anti‑AV) Techniques that bypass antivirus detection, rendering security software ineffective.

20. APT Attack Advanced Persistent Threats are long‑term, sophisticated attacks targeting specific entities, often state‑sponsored.

<code>(1) China is a major victim of APT attacks.
(2) APT attacks are usually backed by a nation or group to steal research and data.
(3) Once targeted by an APT, it is difficult to escape.</code>

21. Exploit / POC An exploit is a program that leverages a vulnerability. A Proof‑of‑Concept (POC) demonstrates that a vulnerability exists but may not be usable for an actual attack.

<code>Exploit/Exp means "use"; in hacker terminology it refers to vulnerability exploitation. Not every vulnerability has an exploit, but every exploit implies a vulnerability.</code>

22. Internal Network Penetration Testing and attacking internal corporate networks to discover sensitive data, requiring diverse techniques and knowledge.

23. Social Engineering Manipulating people through legitimate communication to obtain confidential information, considered a privacy violation in many jurisdictions.

24. Google Hacking Using search engines to locate security weaknesses and misconfigurations on the web.

25. Data Dump ("脱库") Illegally obtaining a website's database or member information.

26. Privilege Escalation Gaining higher-level permissions after obtaining a web shell.

27. Zero‑Day Attack Attacks that exploit vulnerabilities for which no patch exists.

<code>Zero‑day refers to a vulnerability that is unknown to the vendor and has no available fix.</code>

28. Side‑Site / C‑Segment Accessing other websites on the same server (side‑site) or sniffing traffic within the same subnet (C‑segment) to capture credentials.