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letterbomb
letterbomb 1. /n./ A piece of email containing live
data intended to do nefarious things to the recipient's machine or
terminal. It is possible, for example, to send letterbombs that
will lock up some specific kinds of terminals when they are viewed,
so thoroughly that the user must cycle power (see cycle, 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. See also
Trojan horse; compare nastygram. 2. Loosely, a
mailbomb.
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