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Definition 2024


blackhole

blackhole

See also: black hole and black-hole

English

Noun

blackhole (plural blackholes)

  1. Alternative spelling of black hole, especially in the attributive.
  2. (Internet) A place where traffic is silently discarded.
  3. (programming) A bit bucket; a place of permanent oblivion for data.
  4. (computing) DNSBL, used to block spamming IP addresses – are often called "blackhole lists"
  5. (Internet) A blackhole server, a DNS server that handles reverse lookups of invalid IP ranges
    One way of fighting spam is to use a blackhole list maintained on a blackhole server.
  6. (management) A resource sink.

Verb

blackhole (third-person singular simple present blackholes, present participle blackholing, simple past and past participle blackholed)

  1. (transitive, Internet) To redirect (network traffic, etc.) nowhere; to discard incoming traffic.
    • 2005, Victor Oppleman, Oliver Friedrichs, Brett Watson, Extreme exploits: advanced defenses against hardcore hacks (page 186)
      Select a nonglobally routed prefix, such as the Test-Net (RFC 3330) 192.0.2.0/24, to use as the next hop of any attacked prefix to be blackholed.