Kerckhoffs’ Principle

Kerckhoffs’ law; Shannon’s maxim

Cryptosystem Security; Security Through Obscurity

Kerckhoffs’ Principle states that the security of a cryptosystem must lie in the choice of its keys only; everything else (including the algorithm itself) should be considered public knowledge.

Dr. August Kerckhoffs, a Dutch linguist trained at the University of Liège, became a professor at École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Paris, where he taught German. He was also a keen supporter of volapük, a constructed language. His strong interest in cryptography led him to publish two articles entitled La Cryptographie Militaire (“Military Cryptography”) in which he surveyed the state of the art in cryptography and proposed six fundamental principles for any cryptosystem alongside rules of the thumb and general practical advice. At the time, the main goal of cryptographers was to set up a secure telegraphic system.

The six principles enunciated by Kerckhoffs...

Authors and Affiliations

1. Microsoft Research, Microsoft Research, 7 J. J. Thomson Avenue, CB3 0FB, Cambridge, UK

   Fabien A. P. Petitcolas Dr.

Editors and Affiliations

1. Department of Mathematics and Computing Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB, Eindhoven, The Netherlands

   Henk C. A. van Tilborg

2. Center for Secure Information Systems, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4422, USA

   Sushil Jajodia

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