Answer
An example of a situation in which hiding information does not add appreciably to the security of a system is hiding the implementation of the UNIX password hashing algorithm. The algorithm can be determined by extracting the object code from the relevant library routine. Revealing the algorithm does not appreciably simplify the task of an attacker because he still must guess the password itself. An example of a situation in which hiding information adds appreciably to the security of a system is hiding the password or a cryptographic key. This is private information affecting a single user. Revealing it would give the attacker access to the user’s account.