Twelve rules for building systems whose security survives the publication of their own blueprints. The algorithm goes public; only the key stays yours.
3 chapters · 12 rules
Auguste Kerckhoffs argued in the nineteenth century that a cipher should remain secure even if everything about it except the key falls into enemy hands. This book turns that idea into working practice: where secrets are allowed to live, how to design as though the specification is already leaked, and how to run keys so that one disclosure is survivable. The rules are an engineering reading of a long-standing cryptographic design maxim, not a formal standard or a conformance checklist. Drafted with Rulebound AI from the brief: “Create a rule book on Kerckhoffs's principle”, then edited by the author.
For engineers, architects, and security reviewers who have to decide what in their system is allowed to be secret.
Initial publication.
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