For some time now I've been using the term "Config Bomb", and I've managed to find a number of former colleagues who are familiar with the term.
However, none of us can recall where we first heard the term, and search engines don't appear to have any record of such a term existing.
To try and help make the term more widely known, I decided I'd write something down. Hopefully someone sees this and is able to provide us with a primary source.
Config Bomb - a modification to a configuration file that has yet to take effect. At some later time a restart or a reload will cause the bomb to go off, and the change will kick in - sometimes to surprising or even disastrous effects.
This can happen when someone makes a manual change, or also when configuration management tooling isn't configured to automatically restart services when dependent files are modified.
If I was coming up with this term today I'd probably try and go with a less war-based metaphor. maybe something like a coiled spring?
Anyway, this is now written down for (I hope) posterity.