Definition from the Jargon file (http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/cracking.html):
cracking n. [very common] The act of breaking into a computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread myth, this doesn't 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, such as buffer overflows and heap overflows.
See also hacking, shellcodes.
Versions of cracking include demon dialing, war dialing and war driving.
The term "cracker" also refers to a person who removes copy protection from computer software. See software cracking.
In petroleum geology and chemistry, cracking is the process whereby complex organic molecules (e.g. kerogens) are converted to simpler molecules(e.g. hydrocarbons) by the breaking of carbon-carbon bonds in the precursors. The rate of cracking is strongly dependent on the temperature and presence of any catalysts.
Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)
racking cacking crcking craking cracing crackng crackig crackin rcacking carcking crcaking crakcing cracikng cracknig crackign crackin ccracking crracking craacking craccking crackking crackiing crackinng crackingg dracking xracking fracking fracking vracking c4acking ceacking cdacking c5acking cfacking c5acking ctacking cfacking crqcking crwcking crzcking crwcking crscking crzcking cradking craxking crafking crafking cravking craciing cracjing cracming cracoing crac,ing cracoing cracling crac,ing crack8ng crackung crackjng crack9ng crackkng crack9ng crackong crackkng crackihg crackibg crackijg crackijg crackimg crackint crackinf crackinv crackiny crackinb crackiny crackinh crackinb crackyng crackings crakcinglittle privacy. Are you permitted to have it? You are not. Beggars beseech you to look on their afflictions. Sidewalk venders inevitably draws a full delegation of those moldy old whiskerados hover about you, watchful as chicken hawks; and their bleary eyes self-reproachful under their glare, and your smoke is spoiled for of their own selection; so before your cigar is half finished you forward and squabble under your feet for the prize. Then the to seek his next victim, with the still-smoking trophy impaled and hide in your room, and lock and double-lock the doors, and first train leaving for anywhere, the only drawback to a speedy can fathom the meaning of French timetables. It is not so much the aggregate amount of which they have despoiled and planning to nick you for some sum, great or small; it is the the customs of the land, you are at their mercy, and they have no what gets your goat--and gets it good! So you shake the dust from your feet--your own dust, not Paris' from the station. And as the train draws away from the trainshed reiterated everywhere on the walls of the French capital. One of them says: English Spoken Here! And the other says: Liberality! Economy! Frugality! .