weird machine
the unintended computer hidden inside a program's own gaps
Security researchers use "weird machine" for the gap between what a program is meant to compute and what it can actually be made to compute. By feeding it carefully chosen input, an attacker turns features that were never meant to run code into a small, unofficial computer and programs it. Classic examples include buffer overflows. The paper argues a formula sandbox is one of these: its hidden instruction set is every part of the language the blocklist forgot.
Think of it as
Finding that a vending machine, fed the right sequence of coins and buttons, can be made to do far more than sell snacks.
Ideas that use this term