🚪 A first success 🪖 A captured area 🦶 A place for foot 💻 Initial access

foothold

1 7.8

An initial access not allowed to a computer system that lets a hacker stay and do more harm

noun
/ˈfʊthˌhoʊld/

Specialized

: acceso inicial

Once the malware has secured a foothold on the server, it can exploit vulnerabilities to access sensitive data.
gain a foothold
get a foothold

Examples

After gaining a foothold in the network, the attacker began to spread malware across connected devices.
According to a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), hackers "regularly probe DoD and private contractor computer networks to identify vulnerabilities that could allow them to compromise systems in order to steal intellectual property, collect intelligence, or establish a foothold for future exploitation."

Academic text (2017)
Once the malware has gotten a foothold inside the firewall, all bets are off.

Blog text (29)
The cybersecurity team worked diligently to remove any foothold that the hackers had established within the system.

Antonyms

disconnection

9 4.2

Being separate from people, things, or contact, for example losing internet

to exit

Specialized

8 3.6

To stop a computer program so it ends

How Established

control

∞ 2.8

backdoor

Specialized

9 7.2

foothold

Specialized

1 7.8

initial

599 3.4

Surface Forms

foothold singular

footholds plural

Morphology

foothold = foot + hold (semi-transparent) = foot + hold

Technical cybersecurity usage extends the metaphor of gaining a secure position inside a system; derivation is predictable but domain-specific.

Etymology

The word foothold comes from foot and hold, with hold meaning 'to keep something in place'. In computer security, think of an attacker finding a small, hidden place to 'stand' inside a network; a foothold is that first secure access that lets them move to other parts of the system.