script kid

A person, usually a teenage male, with minimal knowledge of computer systems that executes code (often called "exploits") or follows procedures created by more knowledgeable people to break into computer systems or commit "denial of service" (DoS) attacks against other people. These kids are often portrayed by the media and other non-technically savvy parties as being very intelligent and having tremendous technical knowledge despite the fact that very few of these so-called "hackers" can write their own computer programs (of any sort) or even possess even the most rudimentary technical understanding of the underlying systems that they are attacking or using (e.g., CPU architecture, network protocols, algorithms, etc). The wide-spread and trivial availability of these exploits/scripts for "hacking" and denial-of-service attacks allows these kids to cause serious problems from time-to-time and thus they get themselves into trouble way out of proportion to their skill set.

To leap to the assumption that one of these script kids has significant computer knowledge based on his ability to successfully execute exploits/scripts/DoS attacks created by other people is equivalent to assuming that the functionally-illiterate 14 year old that shoots a clerk at a convenience store must be a physics expert because he managed to fire a gun. It's point and clock--it's just that simple. To further torture this analogy, beyond these kids' lack of subject-matter knowledge, they often get themselves into trouble by being extraordinarily stupid and naive in their crimes, e.g., bragging, keeping evidence of their crimes, attacking the wrong people, getting themselves in the press, etc.

<vato> * User has quit (Ping Timeout)
<vato> l0l d00d. t0talln pwn3d. I r smart :>
* User joins
<User> You're such a script kid.
<vato> d00d i'm gonna pack3t j0 4ever n0w.

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script kid

a person, usually claiming to be a "hacker" who uses a another hackers' or programmers' program, or code, to execute the exploit, or code, to gain full access to a computer, and then say that 'they did it'. this can also be contributed to those who use scripts for denial of service, or other attacks, and also claim, that it was of their doing.

yeah man, i hacked that IIS server with ease -or- yeah, yahoo.com just went offline man!

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