gray hat

Meanings

1. A morally ambiguous character; an antihero.
2. A hybrid between a white hat and a black hat hacker, who hacks for no personal gain, and does not have malicious intentions, but does sometimes commit crimes.

Etymology

From being grey (“gray”), a mix between black and white, morally grey/gray. From white hat + black hat. From cowboy country and western fiction, where good guys wear white Stetson hats with light attire, and bad guys wear black ones with black attire. From chivalric fiction, with white knights and black knights. From the association of the color white with good and black with evil.