exfiltrate

verb

ex·​fil·​trate eks-ˈfil-ˌtrāt 

ˈeks-(ˌ)fil-

exfiltrated; exfiltrating

transitive verb

1

: to remove (someone) furtively from a hostile area

Kublinski avoided detection. He was exfiltrated from Poland, with his family, only after being compromised by a leak from the U.S. government.

—Radek Sikorski

2

: to steal (sensitive data) from a computer (as with a flash drive)

intransitive verb

: to escape from a hostile area

exfiltration

ˌeks-(ˌ)fil-ˈtrā-shən 

noun

Examples of exfiltrate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

What the Socket Threat Research Team discovered, as reported by Olivia Brown, a threat analyst at Socket, is that attackers have created a bunch of malicious Python packages that use Gmail’s SMTP protocol to create a tunnel that can exfiltrate data and execute attack commands. —Davey Winder, Forbes.com, 3 May 2025

This malware primarily targets crypto wallet recovery phrases but is also capable of exfiltrating login credentials, payment details, personal messages, location data and even biometric identifiers. —Kurt Knutsson, Cyberguy Report, Fox News, 13 Feb. 2025

Many of the recent attacks against iPhones and Androids that triggered update now warnings have been attributed to the specialist software that compromises a phone to exfiltrate its data. —Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 27 Apr. 2025

This, combined with verifiable data being systematically exfiltrated to unknown servers within the continental United States—and perhaps abroad—merits investigation. —ArsTechnica, 16 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from exfiltration, from ex- entry 1 + (in)filtration

First Known Use

1947, in the meaning defined at transitive sense 1

Rhymes for exfiltrate

• abdicate
• abrogate
• acetate
• activate
• actuate
• adsorbate
• aggravate
• agitate
• alginate
• alienate
• allocate
• amputate