Source : Free On-Line Dictionary of Computing

crawling horror
     
         Ancient crufty hardware or software that is kept
        obstinately alive by forces beyond the control of the hackers
        at a site.  Like {dusty deck} or {gonkulator}, but connotes
        that the thing described is not just an irritation but an
        active menace to health and sanity.  "Mostly we code new stuff
        in C, but they pay us to maintain one big Fortran II
        application from nineteen-sixty-X that's a real crawling
        horror."
     
        Compare {WOMBAT}.
     
        [{Jargon File}]
     
        (1994-12-01)