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lucketoneyesterday at 9:13 PM3 repliesview on HN

All modes of cyber security depend on some obscurity (e.g. password)

Ideally we want a viable plan B, for when it’s leaked/figured out. (E.g. generate new passwords)

(For convenience let’s label air-gap as kind of physical security)


Replies

pdpiyesterday at 10:31 PM

> All modes of cyber security depend on some obscurity (e.g. password)

That's not what the expression means.

"Security through obscurity" has a very specific meaning — that your system's security depends on your adversary not understanding how it works. E.g. understanding RSA is a few wikipedia articles away, and that doesn't compromise its security, so RSA isn't security through obscurity.

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afioritoday at 7:11 AM

In cryptosystems there is a difference between things that can be changed and not, eg passwords/keys are a secret that can be easily charged. Algorithms not so much.

"Security through obscurity" refers to the practice of using an hard to change "thing" as a secret, which is indeed bad practice

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0123456789ABCDEyesterday at 9:27 PM

i don't know a lot about the subject, but the little i know tells me this is not the way to look at this

your password (plain text) is secret because only you are supposed to a have it. in the digital realm, sharing the contents of the password (plain-text) is be akin to making a copy of it — undesirable

now, the algorithm that hashes the plain-text for comparison with the stored hash, that can be know by anyone, and typically is

so password ≠ hashing algorithm

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