Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 23 hrs ago
AI traces origins of NIST security curve numbers to 1990s timestamps
The NIST curves help secure digital signatures and connections used across the internet.
In 2000, the US standards agency adopted curves whose starting numbers had been supplied by the NSA, without an explanation of how they were made.
That silence led to concerns the numbers might hide a backdoor known only to their creators.
Anthropic says its Claude AI traced numbers for five curves to an ordinary computer program using timestamps from 1997 and 1998.
The finding makes deliberate tampering less likely, but does not rule it out completely, and questions remain about some missing numbers.
The reconstruction does not expose private keys or enable forged signatures, and Bitcoin uses a different curve that was not part of the finding.
Anthropic reported that an AI model traced the origins of five sets of numbers used to generate NIST-standardized elliptic curves.
The numbers came from a conventional random-number generator initialized with computer timestamps between May 1997 and April 1998.
The finding makes deliberate manipulation of the studied curves less likely, but does not rule it out completely.
The curves support digital signatures and other cryptographic uses, while Bitcoin uses a different curve, secp256k1.
Anthropic said the reconstruction does not compromise private keys or enable forged signatures.
- Who
- Anthropic’s AI model Claude was reported to have traced the numbers’ origins; the seeds had been supplied by NSA employee Jerry Solinas.
- What
- The model reconstructed how five sets of numbers for NIST-standardized elliptic curves were generated.
- When
- The generator was initialized using timestamps from May 1997 to April 1998. Anthropic published its explanation on October 16, 2026.
- Where
- The curves were standardized by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- Why
- The reconstruction addressed longstanding suspicion that the NSA might have chosen the numbers to hide a weakness. The original reason for skipping some candidate curves remains unclear.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
NIST adopted elliptic curves containing starting numbers supplied by the NSA.
NIST removed the Dual_EC_DRBG random-number generator from its recommendations after concerns about a possible backdoor.
Requests for documents sent to NIST and the NSA about the numbers yielded no results, according to a later account cited by IT Social.
Cryptographer Filippo Valsorda launched a reward for finding the seeds used for curves P-192 to P-521.
Anthropic published its explanation of how the curve seeds were generated.
- Curves traced
- Five NIST prime curves and five example curves in the ANSI X9.62 standard
- Generator
- lrand48, a conventional pseudo-random number generator
- Timestamp period
- May 1997 to April 1998
- P-256 seed
- Corresponds to August 16, 1997, and the 1,842nd candidate drawn
- Reward
- $36,864, which Anthropic said it gave to the Internet Security Research Group
4 sources
AI model reconstructs origins of widely used security standard numbers
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In fact, this strengthens our confidence that the curves were chosen without backdoors or intentional weaknesses
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CLAUDE FOUND THE SEEDS