fail-open
An anti-pattern in security systems in which access is granted by default when the system encounters an anomaly or cannot determine the permission state. In permission revocation scenarios, this causes access rights that have already been revoked to remain in effect.
Timeline (last 90 days)
Fail-closed means that when the system encounters unprocessable anomalous input, missing dependencies or internal errors, it defaults to a reject/block state; fail-open defaults to an allow/continue state.
on_error's block and log correspond to the fail-closed and fail-open failure strategies in distributed systems, and both merely shift risk rather than eliminate it.
Session startup remains fail-open, so broken hooks do not block editing; the cloud-side blocking startup gate leans fail-closed, turning a missing shim into an explicit commit failure.
In security engineering, fail-closed means denying by default when a dependency is unavailable (high security, reduced availability), while fail-open means allowing by default (good availability, possible false negatives).
The fail-safe or fail-closed principle means that when the system cannot determine whether an operation is reversible, it classifies it as irreversible and thereby blocks the Agent from executing it, a strategy widely adopted in security-sensitive systems.
A fail-closed design holds only for the operations the hook actually covers; if an equivalent path has no hook registered, the system is effectively fail-open for that path, and single-point fail-closed cannot be used to infer overall security.
Fail-open means the system chooses to let the operation through when a security mechanism fails; fail-closed means it blocks by default when it fails.
The vast majority of vector index pipelines only design an additive path and reserve no mechanism for reclaiming already-ingested documents upon authorization changes, so when revocation occurs the system fails open rather than fails closed.
Fail-open refers to defaulting to allow passage under abnormal conditions, as opposed to fail-closed.
Fail-closed is a fundamental principle in security system design: when a system encounters an error, missing information, or an uncertain state, it defaults to denying rather than permitting.
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All Facts (13)
Fail-closed means that when the system encounters unprocessable anomalous input, missing dependencies or internal errors, it defaults to a reject/block state; fail-open defaults to an allow/continue state.
50%Unverifiedon_error's block and log correspond to the fail-closed and fail-open failure strategies in distributed systems, and both merely shift risk rather than eliminate it.
50%UnverifiedSession startup remains fail-open, so broken hooks do not block editing; the cloud-side blocking startup gate leans fail-closed, turning a missing shim into an explicit commit failure.
50%UnverifiedIn security engineering, fail-closed means denying by default when a dependency is unavailable (high security, reduced availability), while fail-open means allowing by default (good availability, possible false negatives).
50%UnverifiedThe fail-safe or fail-closed principle means that when the system cannot determine whether an operation is reversible, it classifies it as irreversible and thereby blocks the Agent from executing it, a strategy widely adopted in security-sensitive systems.
50%UnverifiedA fail-closed design holds only for the operations the hook actually covers; if an equivalent path has no hook registered, the system is effectively fail-open for that path, and single-point fail-closed cannot be used to infer overall security.
50%UnverifiedFail-open means the system chooses to let the operation through when a security mechanism fails; fail-closed means it blocks by default when it fails.
50%UnverifiedThe vast majority of vector index pipelines only design an additive path and reserve no mechanism for reclaiming already-ingested documents upon authorization changes, so when revocation occurs the system fails open rather than fails closed.
50%UnverifiedFail-open refers to defaulting to allow passage under abnormal conditions, as opposed to fail-closed.
50%UnverifiedFail-closed is a fundamental principle in security system design: when a system encounters an error, missing information, or an uncertain state, it defaults to denying rather than permitting.
50%UnverifiedThe fail-open design ensures that even if the routing layer encounters a problem, the entire Agent will not stall but will instead fall back to the original execution path.
50%UnverifiedA fail-open design means that when the billing check service goes down, the system defaults to allowing requests through to ensure continuity of user experience, at the cost of temporarily losing cost control.
50%UnverifiedFail-open design refers to the practice where, when a billing check service goes down, the system defaults to allowing requests through rather than rejecting them, in order to ensure continuity of user experience.
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