Science & Tech · Cybersecurity · 2 hrs ago
DeepMind AI agents find faster ways to test weaknesses in old RSA encryption
Google DeepMind researchers used supervised AI agents to study weaknesses in outdated RSA-1024 encryption.
For one type of attack on 1024-bit keys, their method was about 1,600 times faster than the previous best approach.
The researchers also found that padding, which is added to digital signatures to help prevent forgery, offers little extra protection if an attacker controls about half of the signed data.
They tested their approach in a sandbox against an RSA-1024 benchmark that had already been solved in earlier academic work.
A separate method for analyzing multiple keys at once reduced the average cost of factoring each additional key by about 30 times compared with previous batch techniques.
RSA-1024 is an older standard, largely replaced by keys of 2048 bits or more.
The researchers say modern encryption remains secure, and argue that AI could help experts test future systems for weaknesses before attackers can exploit them.
Google DeepMind researchers used AI agents to find techniques that test weaknesses in legacy 1024-bit RSA encryption.
The researchers said one method could improve a previous attack by about 1,600 times for 1024-bit RSA keys.
Another method reduced the average computational cost of factoring each additional 1024-bit RSA key by about 30 times compared with previous batch techniques.
The findings do not threaten modern encryption standards, according to Google DeepMind.
The research was led by Dj Dvijotham and Abhradeep Thakurta, with researchers from the University of California San Diego and Inria.
- Who
- Google DeepMind researchers, working with researchers from the University of California San Diego and Inria.
- What
- AI agents found techniques to test weaknesses in legacy RSA-1024 encryption faster than previous methods.
- When
- The research was announced on November 6, 2026.
- Where
- Not stated.
- Why
- To evaluate cryptographic assumptions and test encryption systems for weaknesses before malicious actors can exploit them.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
This story does not have a timeline yet.
- RSA key size studied
- 1024-bit
- Improvement to previous attack
- Approximately 1,600 times for 1024-bit RSA keys
- Batch factorization cost reduction
- About 30 times per additional 1024-bit RSA key
- Announcement date
- November 6, 2026
- Study leads
- Dj Dvijotham and Abhradeep Thakurta