Payload
Noun · Security & Infosec
Definitions
The component of malware or an exploit that performs the actual malicious action — data exfiltration, encryption, backdoor installation — as opposed to the delivery mechanism.
In plain English: The harmful part of a cyber attack that actually does the damage, as opposed to the method used to deliver it.
Etymology
- 1930s
- Originally an aerospace term meaning the revenue-producing cargo of a vehicle, distinct from fuel and structural weight
- 1980s
- Virus researchers adopt 'payload' to describe the malicious action a virus performs after infection
- 2000s
- The term expands to networking — the data portion of a packet minus headers — blurring benign and malicious meanings