Here the most often quoted cryptological security maxims are listed [1].
Maxim Number One: “One should not underrate the adversary.”
Della Porta's maxim: Only a cryptanalyst, if anybody, can judge the security of a cryptosystem (Auguste Kerckhoffs, [5] formulating the knowledge of the 16th century cryptologist Giambattista Della Porta[6]). To this, David Kahn remarked: “Nearly every inventor of a cipher system has been convinced of the unsolvability of his brainschild.”
Kerckhoffs' maxim: “No inconvenience should occur if the cryptosystem falls into the hands of the enemy” [5].
Givierge's maxim: “Superficial complications can be illusory, for they can provide the cryptographer with a false sense of security” (Marcel Givierge, French cryptanalyst in WWI [2, 3].
Rohrbach's maxim: “In judging the encryption security of a class of methods, cryptographic faults and other infringements of security discipline are to be taken into account.” To this, Otto Horak remarked: “Security of a weak...
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References
Bauer, F.L. (2002). “Decrypted secrets.” Methods and Maxims of Cryptology. Springer-Verlag, Berlin.
Givierge, Marcel (1925). Questions de Chiffre, Revue Militaire Française, vol. 94 (June 1924), 398–417 (July 1924) 59–78, Paris.
Givierge, Marcel (1925). Cours de Cryptographie. Berger-Levrault, Paris.
Kahn, David (1967). The Codebreakers. Macmillan, New York.
Kerckhoffs (1883). “Auguste, La Cryptographie militaire.” Journal des Sciences Militaires, 9 (January) 5–38, (February) 161–191. Available on http://www.cl.ac.uk./usweatfapp2/kerckhoffs/
Porta, Giambattista Della (1563). De Furtivis Literarum Notis, Naples.
Rohrbach, Hans (1939–1946). Mathematische und Maschinelle Methoden beim Chiffrieren und Dechiffrieren. FIAT Review of German Science, 1939–1946: Applied Mathematics, 3 (I), 233–257, Wiesbaden: Office of Military Government for Germany, Field Information Agencies, 1948.
Shannon, Claude E. (1949). “Communication theory of secrecy systems.” Bell Systems Technical Journal, 28, 656–715.
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Bauer, F.L. (2005). Maxims. In: van Tilborg, H.C.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-23483-7_246
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