Attack definition

To criticize strongly or in a hostile manner.

To use force against in order to harm; start a fight with; strike out at with physical or military force; assault.

To make an assault.

To begin working on energetically; undertake (a problem, task, etc.) vigorously.

To speak or write against, esp. with vigor; criticize, denounce, censure, etc.

The onset of a disease, or the recurrence of a chronic disease.

To set upon with violent force.

The act or an instance of attacking; an assault.

The act of attacking.

The definition of attack is to make an attempt to hurt someone or something (physically or verbally), to destroy someone or something, to impact someone or something in a dangerous manner, or to forcibly take someone or something.

To start work on with purpose and vigor.

To act on in a detrimental way; cause harm to.

An expression of strong criticism; hostile comment.

To make an attack; launch an assault.

Attack means a sudden bout of illness, often one that returns from time to time, or a bout of intense feelings.

Attack is the act of dealing with something, occasionally in an aggressive manner.

Attack is the start of something dangerous and damaging, often in relation to some type of chemical substance.

The definition of attack is to take on or handle something, sometimes aggressively.

To play (the ball) aggressively, especially by moving toward it rather than by waiting for it to arrive.

To make a sudden, intense effort to pull ahead in a race.

An episode or onset of a disease, especially an occurrence of a chronic disease.

The experience or beginning of a feeling, need, or desire.

Offensive play, especially in lacrosse.

An offensive play.

The players executing such a play.

Scoring ability or potential.

A forceful shot over the net in volleyball.

A sudden, intense effort to pull ahead in a race.

The initial movement in a task or undertaking.

A method or procedure.

(music) The beginning or manner of beginning a piece, passage, or tone.

Decisiveness and clarity in artistic expression.

Act or manner of such beginning.

(music) Promptness and precision in beginning a passage or phrase.

Designed or used for carrying out a hostile or aggressive attack.

Trained to attack on command.

An episode or onset of a disease, often sudden in nature.

The term attack can be used in a number of ways, from the more general meaning of an attempt by a cracker to break into a computer to deface a home page or to install a virus on a computer to the more technical information security approach of the term, meaning an attack to a cryptosystem. In the latter usage, a security professional is suggesting that a cracker is searching for weaknesses in the computer system that will allow him or her to decrypt encrypted information in that system. The various types of attacks on computer systems are many and include the following: passive attacks, which, when using sniffers, can take place by eavesdropping and may not be detected; active attacks, which require some interaction such as altering data and can be detected; remote attacks, which do not occur on-site; a hit-and-run ping of death attack, which crashes a computer; a smurf or persistent attack, which affects the target’s machine for a limited amount of time—and then lets it return to normal; a replay attack, which is an active attack whereby the cracker tries to capture message parts and then resend a message sometime later with changes; a brute-force attack, which is a fatiguing attempt to try all combinations until a successful break-in occurs; a man-in-the-middle attack, which involves either eavesdropping on an existing connection or interposing oneself in the middle of a connection and changing data; a hijack attack, which literally hijacks one side of a connection; and rewrite attacks, which change an encrypted message without first decrypting it. Targeted attacks that have the goal of taking over control of a computer system typically contain five distinct phases. In the reconnaissance phase, the attacker tries to find potential candidates for an attack; he or she gathers information about the infrastructure of a network, the people involved in using and managing the network, and the computers attached to it. The second phase includes a scan of the system or a range of systems for vulnerabilities. In the third phase, the vulnerabilities are exploited, either by gaining access to the system or denying service to it. In the fourth phase, the attacker uses a variety of methods to gain access by installing a back door listener, a RootKit, or a Kernel-level RootKit. The last phase of an attack typically involves the attacker’s covering his or her tracks so that the administrator of a computer system would find it difficult to detect that the system has been compromised. Graham, R. Hacking Lexicon. [Online, 2001.] Robert Graham Website. http://www.linuxsecurity.com/resource_files/documentation/hacking-dict.html.

An active episode of a chronic or recurrent disease.

To begin to affect; to act upon injuriously or destructively; to begin to decompose or waste.

To deal with something in a direct way; to set to work upon.

(soccer) To move forward in an attempt to actively score point, as opposed to trying not to concede.

In volleyball, to hit (the ball) forcefully over the net.

To make a sudden, intense effort to pass (a competitor in a race).

Attack is defined as the act of making a physical or verbal attempt to hurt or destroy, sometimes in a purposefully hurtful manner.

To move toward (the goal) on an offensive play, as in lacrosse.

To make a play on offense; attempt to score.

To begin acting upon harmfully or destructively.

Any hostile offensive action, esp. with armed forces; onslaught.

A beginning of any task, undertaking, etc.