Re: Concepts: Security and Obscurity

On Apr 4, 2007, at 3:55 PM, Pranay Kanwar wrote:

> "Kerckhoffs' principle applies beyond codes and ciphers to security
> systems in general: every secret creates a potential failure point.
> Secrecy, in other words, is a prime cause of brittleness—and therefore
> something likely to make a system prone to catastrophic collapse.
> Conversely, openness provides ductility."

Thanks for commenting, Pranay. I would argue, however, that this
applies to situations where the security of the system RESTS on
secrecy, not when the security of the system is independent of any
secrecy as a layer. I just don't see any practical, real-world
downside to systems such as SPA or Portknocking when they sit in
front of daemons that have already been significantly secured.

Thoughts?

--
Daniel Miessler
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