Comment by mannyv
4 hours ago
You are wrong because you are being overly pedantic.
NAT provides security because normally it disallows external actors on the outside from accessing resources on the inside side.
A firewall is not required for NAT to work, although many firewalls have NAT built-in. And indeed, if a firewall is off NAT can still function (if NAT is separate).
Your definition of security is too narrow.
And saying that NAT is broken all the time, implying that NAT is not security, is ridiculous. SSH is 'broken' all the time. TLS is broken all the time.
Here's the end point: NAT effectively reduces the attack surface for a home network to the router. That is security, practically speaking.
Busses aren't for safety. Seatbelts and airbags and etc are. Busses are just for moving large numbers of people around efficiently.
And yet statistically I'm safer on a bus. Therefore it's reasonable to ride the bus "for safety".
I would phrase it as: NAT accidentally "breaks" or "makes harder/impossible" something which yields increased security, under some circumstances.