Fail Secure

Kind: principle

Layer: Correctness Core

Record: architecture:fail-secure

Severity: mandatory

Scope: auth, access, infrastructure

Canonical: Ontology

A design rule that an authentication or policy failure denies access.

Listed in Architecture principles, after Fail Safe and before Graceful Degradation.

Requires

• Secure by Default

Reinforces

• Security by Design

Enables

• Deny-by-Default Behavior

Conflicts with

• Fail Open

In tension with

• Availability

Tensions

• Fail Secure / Availability

Violated by

• Fail Open

Refactored by

• Default Deny

Severity

• mandatory

Category

• Error Handling / Resilience

Enforced by

• rules/eslint/no-fail-open-guard.eslint.rule.ts

Linked from

• Execution joins the halves
• Security / Privacy / Compliance / Governance
• Error Handling / Resilience
• Quality Attributes
• Security Privacy Compliance
• Severity levels
• The resolutions