[Cryptography] Code as if everyone is the thief.

[ianG]

(This is what financial cryptography is about, h/t to Jeroen):

http://thecodelesscode.com/case/140
http://financialcryptography.com/mt/archives/001496.html




A novice asked of master Bawan: “Say something about the Heartbleed Bug.”

Said Bawan: “Chiuyin, the Governor’s treasurer, is blind as an
earthworm. A thief may give him a coin of tin, claim that it is silver
and receive change. When the treasury is empty, which man is the
villain? Speak right and I will spare you all blows for one week. Speak
wrong and my staff will fly!”

The novice thought: if I say the thief, Bawan will surely strike me, for
it is the treasurer who doles out the coins. But if I say the treasurer
he will also strike me, for it is the thief who takes advantage of the
situation.

When the pause grew too long, Bawan raised his staff high. Suddenly
enlightened, the novice cried out: “The Governor! For who else made this
blind man his treasurer?”

Bawan lowered his staff. “And who is the Governor?”

Said the novice: “All who might have cried out ‘this man is blind!’ but
failed to notice, or even to examine him.”

Bawan nodded. “This is the first lesson. Too easily we praise Open
Source, saying smugly to each other, ‘under ten thousand eyeballs, every
bug is laid bare’. Yet when the ten thousand avert their gaze, they are
no more useful than the blind man. And now that I have spared you all
blows for one week, stand at ease and tell me: what is the second lesson?”

Said the novice: “Surely, I have no idea.”

Bawan promptly struck the novice’s skull with his staff. The boy fell to
the floor, unconscious.

As he stepped over the prone body, Bawan remarked: “Code as if everyone
is the thief.”