Research

Claude solves 25-year-old NSA cryptography puzzle in under 30 minutes

Original titleAnthropics' Claude cracks a 25-year-old NSA cryptography mystery in under 30 minutes

Outlet: The Decoder
Published: Oct 17, 2026
Importance: 5/5

Summary

Anthropic's Claude AI model solved a 25-year-old cryptography mystery involving mysterious seeds in NIST's standard curves for digital signatures. The model determined in under 30 minutes that the seeds originated from lrand48, a simple C random number generator, making deliberate backdoors far less likely.

Original excerpt

Anthropic's AI model Claude has solved a 25-year-old cryptography puzzle. The mysterious seeds behind NIST's standard curves for digital signatures were provided by the NSA without explanation, raising long-standing suspicion about built-in backdoors. Claude figured out in under 30 minutes that the seeds came from "lrand48," a simple C random number generator, making deliberate backdoors far less likely. The article Anthropics' Claude cracks a 25-year-old NSA cryptography mystery in under 30 minutes appeared first on The Decoder.

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