An Anthropic employee used the Claude AI model to uncover the origins of the NIST P-curve seeds used in ECDSA, resolving a decades-old cryptographic mystery. The seeds were not derived from cryptographic hashes or hidden passphrases, but from the Unix timestamp seeding of the C library’s lrand48 random-number generator. This simple explanation dispels long-standing suspicions of NSA backdoors in the curve parameters.
The discovery confirms the curves were chosen without intentional weaknesses, increasing confidence in their security. Researchers like Neal Koblitz and Alfred Menezes had previously highlighted the lack of transparency around the seeds, fueling speculation. Jerry Solinas, a former NSA employee, had humorously suggested a passphrase origin, but Claude found no evidence supporting that.
Instead, the seeds emerged from iterating lrand48 with a timestamp seed, requiring 1842 iterations for P-256 alone. The findings show the process was transparent and reproducible, undermining theories of deliberate subversion. While Jerry Solinas passed away in 2023, Claude’s work provides closure to the mystery.
The result is not a cryptographic break but a validation of the integrity of widely used ECDSA standards.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing