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Glite Dictionary
🤢 Spoiled or dirty 💻 Untrusted input
tainted

tainted

7.9
Marked as coming from a source not trusted and needing to be checked
  • adjective
  • /ˈteɪntɪd/
  • Specialized
translation icon : contaminado
  • The data was tainted by a malicious program and needed to be cleaned before use.

Examples

  • After the security breach, we discovered that several files had been tainted and required extensive review.

  • We must ensure that any inputs from untrusted sources are not tainted to protect our system.

  • But if you do sort of the naive sort of PC tainting scheme, then you might sort of over overestimate how much X has been tainted by.

Synonyms

untrusted
vstainted
1 5.0

People do not see it as safe or reliable

is marked in computing as coming from a possibly dangerous source and needs validation
contaminated
vstainted
4.7

Something that becomes unsafe because it touches something dirty or harmful

is about data from unsafe sources in computing that requires sanitization

Antonyms

trusted
3 1.4

A person or group people rely on because they are honest

How Pure

pristine
63 5.1
pure
390 1.0
untainted
4 5.6
tainted
  • Specialized
7.9
corrupt
291 4.4

Surface Forms

tainted positive

Morphology

tainted = taint (transparent) = taint + ed

The computing sense is an extension of the verb sense (data is 'tainted' = contaminated/untrusted) formed via standard -ed adjective formation.

Etymology

Tainted in computing keeps the same old idea: it comes from the root tingere ('to dye') and the image of a tint or 'stain' that marks something. So a tainted input is 'marked' as not safe until it is checked or cleaned.