backdoor

[ bak-dawr ]

noun

1. a door at the rear of a house, building, etc.:

   Fans were waiting by the backdoor of the theater, hoping to catch a glimpse of the band.

2. a secret, furtive, or illicit manner or means:

   The business has a backdoor through which the board of directors can access slush fund money.

3. an indirect manner or means:

   Marriage counseling was a kind of backdoor into therapy, where I finally faced my dysfunctional relationship with my mother.

4. Computers. a secret access point or undocumented vulnerability in a software program, hardware component, or digital network, sometimes intentionally maintained as for remote developer access, but also sometimes created or exploited for unauthorized access by hackers:

   If half of all devices have disclosed backdoors, cybersecurity experts must assume that the number of devices affected by undisclosed or malicious backdoors is much higher.

5. Slang: Usually Vulgar. anus.

adjective

1. secret; furtive; illicit:

   Special interests pushed through a backdoor contract before the bidding period had expired.

2. indirect:

   The immigration reform bill included backdoor amnesty for employed undocumented residents.

3. Computers. relating to, using, or noting an indirect access point into a network, computer, or program:

   Hackers used a Trojan horse to establish backdoor access to the mainframe.

4. Slang: Vulgar. anal ( def 1 ).

Word History and Origins

Origin of backdoor¹

First recorded in 1520–30; back ¹( def ) + door

Example Sentences

Pull up any video clip of Lee and you see a player cutting through the paint, head up, hands ready for a pass and a backdoor layup.

From Ozy

Once downloaded, the file would install a “backdoor” on the target’s machine.

From Fortune

The administration even tried to push the “Clipper Chip,” which would give them a backdoor into consumer devices.

From Time

He said barely a word, just stared straight ahead at the backdoor entrance to the Senate Chamber.

From Washington Post

It was early 2019 and I’d gotten word that managers were worried they’d opened a backdoor to a rather intense surveillance effort.

From Voice of San Diego

Yet, after months of backdoor negotiations there was Xi, stone-facedly shaking hands with a smirking Abe.

From The Daily Beast

In Kafr Kanna, because of the blocked highway exit, The Daily Beast was forced to use a backdoor entry to town.

From The Daily Beast

That's happening thanks to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Survillence Act, the very "backdoor" discussed here.

From The Daily Beast

The defenders of backdoor searches argue that the same rule should apply in the section 702 situation.

From The Daily Beast

It was “a reasonably featureful backdoor product sold very cheaply,” he says.

From The Daily Beast

He went out through the backdoor into the garden: stood to listen towards the next garden.

From Project Gutenberg

He went out by the backdoor into the garden, and saw how the sky was clouding up from the south-west.

From Project Gutenberg

The last Royalist defender of safe measures had vanished through the backdoor.

From Project Gutenberg

Early next morning, he tied up his clothes in his handkerchief, crept downstairs noiselessly and let himself out by the backdoor.

From Project Gutenberg

I had left of drinking of water from the year of '89 in America, but there was a well close by the backdoor.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• classified
• covert
• furtive
• hush-hush
• mysterious
• obscure
• private
• secluded
• undercover
• underground
• undisclosed
• unknown
• unpublished