Loading config.xml sections dependent on failed plugins, must not disable Jenkins

So you want to effectively disable security and leave Jenkins and all of its data available to everyone with network access to Jenkins when the authorization/authentication plugins break in any way?

This appears to be a really bad idea.

No, that would not disable securtiy. In fact the case which happened here, commenting out that block, resulted in no-access.

In what way would that be an improvement over the current situation?

1. A stack trace would not be exposed to the users (or the internet, etc)
2. depending on what failed, some operations may still function.
3. there is a hope of being able to use the web UI to manage the ofending plugin.

But lets start with #1, giving out the file path to the whole internet saying, hey I have my files in this path if you would like to start your hacking attemptins on a known target.

https://wiki.jenkins-ci.org/display/JENKINS/Suppress+Stack+Trace+Plugin

Good to know, I'll recomend that be addded to the Jenkins STIG and I'll deploy it to our instances.

But what if that plugin fails? I still think that failing to read the config.xml or process a plugin dependent section should not "crash" Jenkins.

Most don't. Auth related ones are the only that break Jenkins in this way AFAIK. You've just been lucky.