cracker
= C =
crank
cracking n.
[very common] The act of breaking into a
computer system; what a cracker does. Contrary to widespread
myth, this does not 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. Accordingly,
most crackers are only mediocre hackers.
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.