Open design is basically a generalization of Kerckhoffs's principle. Kerckhoffs's principle is usually stated as "A cryptosystem should be secure even if every

Open design is basically a generalization of Kerckhoffs's principle. Kerckhoffs's principle is usually stated as "A cryptosystem should be secure even if everything about the system, except the key, is public knowledge." Note that Kerckhoffs's principle only refers to cryptosystems. The open design principle is a generalization that applies to all systems, whether or not they are cryptosystems.