Erik Kamerling wrote:
Trojan Horse
A computer program that appears to have a useful function, but also has a
hidden and potentially malicious function that evades security mechanisms,
sometimes by exploiting legitimate authorizations of a system entity that
invokes the program.
Copied from the SANS Glossary of Terms Used in Security and Intrusion
Detection.
http://www.sans.org/resources/glossary.php
Common usage in practice today matters as much as if not more than the
original use of the term in computing. The term Trojan is synonymous
with malware that adds a backdoor, even if a bunch of old people think
it's still okay to call other malicious code by this name.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_horse_%28computing%29
In practice, Trojan Horses in the wild do contain spying functions (such
as a Packet sniffer) or backdoor functions that allow a computer,
unbeknownst to the owner, to be remotely controlled remotely from the
network, creating a "zombie_computer". Because Trojan horses often have
these harmful functions, there often arises the misunderstanding that
such functions define a Trojan Horse.
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