- 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.
- a secret, furtive, or illicit manner or means: The business has a backdoor through which the board of directors can access slush fund money.
- an indirect manner or means: Marriage counseling was a kind of backdoor into therapy, where I finally faced my dysfunctional relationship with my mother.
- 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.
- anus.
- secret; furtive; illicit: Special interests pushed through a backdoor contract before the bidding period had expired.
- indirect: The immigration reform bill included backdoor amnesty for employed undocumented residents.
- 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.
- anal (def. 1).
- a door at the rear or side of a building
- a means of entry to a job, position, etc, that is secret, underhand, or obtained through influence
- (as modifier)
