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Security Fundamentals & Crypto · Intermediate

Open Design

Design principle that security should not depend on the secrecy of the design or implementation.

Definition

Open design states that mechanisms should be publicly reviewable, with security depending only on protected keys or passwords. Publicly scrutinized algorithms such as AES are trusted because they have survived open analysis. It is the design-level counterpart to Kerckhoffs's principle.

Example

Organizations choose standardized, published cryptographic algorithms over proprietary secret ones.

Exam tip

Open design is the opposite of security through obscurity.

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