| a striking or notable deed; feat; spirited or heroic act: the exploits of Alexander the Great. |

| 1. | to utilize, esp. for profit; turn to practical account: to exploit a business opportunity. |
| 2. | to use selfishly for one's own ends: employers who exploit their workers. |
| 3. | to advance or further through exploitation; promote: He exploited his new movie through a series of guest appearances. |

ex·ploit (ěk'sploit', ĭk-sploit') n. An act or deed, especially a brilliant or heroic one. See Synonyms at feat1. tr.v. (ĭk-sploit', ěk'sploit') ex·ploit·ed, ex·ploit·ing, ex·ploits
[Middle English, from Old French esploit, from Latin explicitum, neuter past participle of explicāre, to unfold; see explicate.] ex·ploit'a·bil'i·ty n., ex·ploit'a·ble adj., ex·ploit'a·tive, ex·ploit'ive adj., ex·ploit'a·tive·ly, ex·ploit'ive·ly adv., ex·ploit'er n. |
exploit security
A security hole or an instance of taking advantage of a security hole.
"[...] hackers say exploit. sysadmins say hole" -- Mike Emke.
Emke reports that the stress is on the second syllable. If this is true, this may be a case of hackerly zero-deriving verbs (especially instantials) from nouns, akin to "write" as a noun to describe an instance of a disk drive writing to a disk.
(2001-11-24)