Payload
The portion of an exploit or malware that performs the attacker's intended action.
The payload is the part of malware or an exploit that performs the attacker’s actual goal — distinct from the delivery and exploitation mechanism that gets it running. The same vulnerability can deliver wildly different payloads: a reverse shell, ransomware, an info-stealer, or a cryptominer. Exploit frameworks like Metasploit make this modular by design, decoupling the exploit from a menu of interchangeable payloads.