[tptacek]

This is all pure navel gazing, of course, but:

It goes at least back to Pluvius (in, amongst other places, BoW) in 1994, but I'm pretty sure he didn't come up with it either --- BoW itself was an ironic commentary on the whole scene, and wrote casually about "scripts" because everyone knew what that word meant.

And so what's interesting isn't "script kiddie" --- "kiddie" has been an all-purpose pejorative since forever --- but "scripts", which have an interesting etymology that crosses over between IRC scripts and exploits. "Cookbook" used to be another related term which has fallen by the wayside.

"Zero day" is another term with interesting roots, originally referring not to vulnerabilities and exploits but to pirated games; there was a whole "days"-denominated scale for freshness of warez.

[DEADBEEFC0FFEE]

Zero days warez is absolutely where this measure of freshness comes from. The warez scene was closely linked to hacking because many software packages had licencing keys and other forms of DRM, and providing the software with the keygen, or crack was the norm. Good times. So exciting.

[drawkbox]

NFO files highlighting groups like Razor 1911, Phrozen Crew, CLASS, FairLight, DEViANCE and others, fun.

[nefitty]

This is a look at BoW's 1997 response to CBC going after hackers because of the actions of a script kiddie.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ypw59y/a-brief-look-back-...

[tptacek]

For whatever it's worth, BoW in '97 is pretty different than BoW in '94.