services: Say fail secure, not fail closed - #535
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chrysh merged 1 commit intoOct 3, 2026
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October 3, 2026 19:46
Fail closed comes from firewalls and policy engines. NIST's word for the same property, and the one this codebase should speak, is fail secure: on failure the system stays in a state that accepts nothing unverified. Wording only, 31 occurrences across the orchestrator SM, the driver, the capabilities crate and the driver README. No behaviour change. Assisted-by: Claude
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"Fail closed" comes from firewalls and policy engines. NIST's word for the same property is fail secure: on failure the system stays in a state that accepts nothing unverified.
"Fail safe" would be the wrong swap. In hardware it means the opposite, a lock that unlocks when power drops, and NIST uses it for preventing damage rather than preserving a secure state.
Wording only: 31 occurrences across the orchestrator state machine, the driver, the capabilities crate and the driver README. No behaviour change, and
grep -rniE "fail[- ]closed|fails closed"over the repo comes back empty.