crack

adj : (informal) of the highest quality; "an ace reporter"; "a

crack shot"; "a first-rate golfer"; "a super party";

"played top-notch tennis"; "an athlete in tiptop

condition"; "she is absolutely tops" [syn: {ace}, {A-one},

{first-rate}, {super}, {tiptop}, {topnotch}, {tops(p)}]

n 1: a long narrow opening [syn: {cleft}, {crevice}, {fissure}, {scissure}]

2: a narrow opening; "he opened the window a crack" [syn: {gap}]

3: a long narrow depression in a surface [syn: {crevice}, {cranny},

{fissure}, {chap}]

4: a sudden sharp noise; "the crack of a whip"; "he heard the

cracking of the ice" [syn: {cracking}]

5: (informal) a chance to do something; "he wanted a shot at

the champion" [syn: {shot}]

6: witty remark [syn: {wisecrack}, {sally}, {quip}]

7: a mark left after a small piece has been chopped or broken

off of something [syn: {check}, {chip}]

8: a purified and potent form of cocaine that is smoked rather

than snorted

9: a usually brief attempt; "he took a crack at it"; "I gave it

a whirl" [syn: {fling}, {go}, {pass}, {whirl}, {offer}]

10: the act of cracking something [syn: {fracture}, {cracking}]

v 1: become fractured; break or crack on the surface only; "The

glass cracked when it was heated" [syn: {check}, {break}]

2: make a very sharp explosive sound; "His gun cracked"

3: as of tightly stretched ropes or fingers [syn: {snap}]

4: hit forcefully; deal a hard blow, making a cracking noise:

"The teacher cracked him across the face with a ruler"

5: pass through, as through a barrier; "Registrations cracked

through the 30,000 mark in the county" [syn: {break

through}]

6: break partially but keep its integrity; "The glass cracked"

7: break suddenly and abruptly; as of something under tension;

"The rope snapped" [syn: {snap}]

8: suffer a nervous breakdown [syn: {crack up}, {crock up}, {break

up}, {collapse}]

9: cause to become cracked; "heat and light cracked the back of

the leather chair"

cracker

An individual who attempts to gain unauthorised

access to a computer system. These individuals are often

malicious and have many means at their disposal for breaking

into a system. The term was coined ca. 1985 by hackers in

defence against journalistic misuse of "{hacker}". An earlier

attempt to establish "worm" in this sense around 1981--82 on

{Usenet} was largely a failure.

Use of both these neologisms reflects a strong revulsion

against the theft and vandalism perpetrated by cracking rings.

The neologism "cracker" in this sense may have been influenced

not so much by the term "safe-cracker" as by the non-jargon

term "cracker", which in Middle English meant an obnoxious

person (e.g., "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears /

With this abundance of superfluous breath?" -- Shakespeare's

King John, Act II, Scene I) and in modern colloquial American

English survives as a barely gentler synonym for "white

trash".

While it is expected that any real hacker will have done some

playful cracking and knows many of the basic techniques,

anyone past {larval stage} is expected to have outgrown the

desire to do so except for immediate practical reasons (for

example, if it's necessary to get around some security in

order to get some work done).

Contrary to widespread myth, cracking does not usually involve

some mysterious leap of hackerly brilliance, but rather

persistence and the dogged repetition of a handful of fairly

well-known tricks that exploit common weaknesses in the

security of target systems. Accordingly, most crackers are

only mediocre hackers.

Thus, there is far less overlap between hackerdom and

crackerdom than the {mundane} reader misled by

sensationalistic journalism might expect. Crackers tend to

gather in small, tight-knit, very secretive groups that have

little overlap with the huge, open hacker poly-culture; though

crackers often like to describe ▫themselves▫ as hackers, most

true hackers consider them a separate and lower form of life,

little better than {virus} writers. Ethical considerations

aside, hackers figure that anyone who can't imagine a more

interesting way to play with their computers than breaking

into someone else's has to be pretty {losing}.

See also {Computer Emergency Response Team}, {dark-side

hacker}, {hacker ethic}, {phreaking}, {samurai}, {Trojan

Horse}.

[{Jargon File}]

(1998-06-29)