AI Solves the Origin of NIST Elliptic Curve Seeds

The AI model Claude, developed by Anthropic, reproduced the origins of five elliptic curve seeds standardized by NIST in about half an hour. This development has reignited long-standing suspicions about how these parameters were generated. J. Ayo Akinyele, the engineering manager at Ripple, noted that the findings are remarkable and that it is significant for the solution to be presented through a simple method. The research showed that the seeds used for the P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, and P-521 curves were generated using the lrand48 random number generator from old C programming libraries. These curves are crucial components of ECDSA standards. The research does not imply a successful attack against ECDSA, nor has it revealed a new vulnerability for entities using elliptic curve cryptography. However, it is noteworthy that theories suggesting the NIST curves were deliberately weakened appear less plausible. Anthropic stated that the details of the original selection process remain unclear, and the reasons for the preference of certain base points are uncertain. This development also indicates that AI can be used to investigate historical problems.