Principles for Secure Deployment
A concise set of operational principles for deploying secure systems in adversarial environments.
Secure deployment is not a single action but a chain of accountable steps. These principles guide the design of deployment pipelines for systems where compromise is costly and recovery is difficult.
Reproducibility
Every deployment must be reproducible from source. Non-deterministic build steps, undocumented environment assumptions, and implicit state all erode confidence in what is actually running.
Minimal Surface Area
The running system should contain only what is necessary. Unused capabilities, dormant services, and over-permissioned processes expand the attack surface without adding value.
Attestation and Auditability
The system must be able to demonstrate its own integrity. This requires measurable properties, verifiable claims, and logs that are themselves tamper-evident.
Graceful Degradation
Under failure or attack, the system should degrade to a known-safe state rather than an undefined one. This requires explicit failure modes and automated containment boundaries.