Anthropic traces NSA-supplied seeds behind NIST P-256 and sibling curves to 1997-98 Unix timestamps fed into lrand48, solving decades-old ECDSA mystery

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Anthropic researchers found that the NIST P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384 and P-521 seeds were not hashes of a passphrase, as a 2015 tip from Jerry Solinas suggested, but output of the C library's lrand48 generator seeded with Unix timestamps from May 1997 to April 1998. P-256's seed was candidate 1842. The team says this is not a break or weakness and makes backdoors less plausible. The $36,864 bounty goes to the Internet Security Research Group. B-163's seed and several base points remain unexplained.

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16 Oct 20:10Leviathan published this article
16 Oct 20:18First reportAnthropic traces NIST P-256 curve seeds to 1997-era random-number generation8 acc.

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Cited posts

@TFTC21 TFTCOn X ↗
For 25 years people speculated the NSA hid a backdoor in the NIST curve seeds. Turns out the P-256 seed was candidate #1842 from a random number generator started at 01:52:34 UTC on August 16, 1997. Claude figured it out in under half an hour. The scariest thing AI has done to…
@MNX_fi MNXOn X ↗
BREAKING: Claude (@AnthropicAI) found ECDSA seeds. Nonetheless, current applications in TLS, certificates, SSH, and similar systems stay equally secure as they were. Discovering how the seeds were produced does not weaken the elliptic-curve discrete log problem or introduce a… https://t.co/I4VF6XUeml
@BitcoinNewsCom Bitcoin NewsOn X ↗
CLAUDE SOLVES 25-YEAR-OLD MYSTERY SURROUNDING NSA CRYPTOGRAPHIC STANDARDS Anthropic researchers report that Claude solved a decades-old mystery surrounding the origins of the NIST elliptic curves used in widely adopted cryptographic standards. For more than 25 years,… https://t.co/Us4k2R2mEF

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@coinbureau Coin BureauOn X ↗
🚨JUST IN: Anthropic’s Claude solves the NSA’s 26 year cryptography mystery in under 30 minutes. Claude found the NSA’s “random” seeds for cryptography curves like P-256 were generated from simple 1997 and 1998 timestamps. Nobody had explained them since NIST published the…
@TheLatentCo The LatentOn X ↗
THE LATENT: Anthropic said Friday that Claude solved a decades-old mystery surrounding the origins of cryptographic parameters used in widely adopted elliptic-curve digital signature standards, tracing several seeds to a 1990s random-number generator initialized with Unix…
@PratyushRT Pratyush Ranjan TiwariFirst reportOn X ↗
Where did the seeds for the NIST ECDSA curves come from? A question that's kept cryptographers up at night for decades. Claude found they're just output from the old C RNG lrand48, seeded with 1997–98 Unix timestamps. Anyone can now reproduce them!https://t.co/EZR5gUJewW

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Anthropic

Anthropic traces NSA-supplied seeds behind NIST P-256 and sibling curves to 1997-98 Unix timestamps fed into lrand48, solving decades-old ECDSA mystery

Story signal · how it spread on X · via Elfa

Cited posts

Explore the topic

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Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

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More on Anthropic

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

Anthropic traces NSA-supplied seeds behind NIST P-256 and sibling curves to 1997-98 Unix timestamps fed into lrand48, solving decades-old ECDSA mystery

Story signal · how it spread on X · via Elfa

Cited posts

Explore the topic

More on Anthropic

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

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Total stats

How to Earn

More on Anthropic

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software

Anthropic opens fifth Asia-Pacific office in Singapore and signs AI safety MOU with government

Anthropic built an in-house version control system, migrating its monorepo off git in five months

Anthropic warns small AI models may be months away from copying themselves onto poorly secured smart devices like TV boxes and ovens, with no central off switch to stop them spreading.

AI spy war: Anthropic says rival labs used thousands of fake accounts to steal Claude's brain. Its new defences cut the theft by up to 99%, with tens of thousands of accounts banned.

Anthropic AI model submitted false homicide tip to police website, Reuters reports

Anthropic launches Cyber Mission to secure critical infrastructure and open-source software