# AI advancements in cryptographic problem solving

> Live situation record from CLSTR: https://clstr.news/situations/ai-advancements-in-cryptographic-problem-solving
> Updated: 2026-10-16T23:34:37.000Z. Sources: 17. Developments: 2.

Recent developments indicate that AI models, specifically Anthropic’s Claude, are increasingly capable of solving complex cryptographic challenges.

In September 2026, researcher Steve Weis used Claude AI to factor the RSA-896 semiprime, a 270-decimal-digit number. By utilizing the General Number Field Sieve (GNFS) algorithm optimized through AI to manage GPU computations, Weis set a new public factoring record. While experts state this does not yet compromise the RSA-2048 standard, it suggests that RSA-1024 keys may be vulnerable to entities with sufficient GPU resources.

By October 2026, Claude AI was used to resolve a 25-year-old mystery concerning the origin of cryptographic seeds used in several NIST-standardized elliptic curves. The AI identified in under 30 minutes that the seeds used by the NSA for curves such as P-256 and P-384 were generated via the lrand48 pseudo-random number generator from a 1990s C library. 

Research released on October 16, 2026, specifies that the seeds for curves P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, and P-521 were initialized with Unix timestamps between May 1997 and April 1998. The model recognized a pattern where lrand48 outputs only 31 bits, resulting in systematic zero bits in the seeds. While the discovery does not expose immediate security vulnerabilities or provide a method to break existing encryption, it provides reproducible evidence that reduces long-standing suspicions of intentional mathematical backdoors. Anthropic donated the associated $36,864 bounty to the Internet Security Research Group.

## Claims

- reconstructed the origin of five NIST elliptic curve seeds in under 30 minutes (corroborated by 12 sources)
- the discovery reduces suspicions that the NSA intentionally planted backdoors in the curves (corroborated by 12 sources)
- Anthropic donated a bounty of approximately $36,864 to the Internet Security Research Group (ISRG) (corroborated by 8 sources)
- the origin of the B-163 seed remains unresolved (corroborated by 3 sources)

## Timeline

### 2026-10-16: Claude AI resolves 25-year NIST cryptographic seed mystery

Anthropic's Claude AI has traced the origins of five NIST elliptic curve seeds to a 1990s Unix-based random number generator, debunking long-held suspicions of NSA-engineered cryptographic backdoors.

15 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/claude-ai-resolves-25-year-mystery-of-nsa-cryptographic-seeds

### 2026-09-20: Steve Weis factors RSA-896 using Anthropic’s Claude AI

Researcher Steve Weis factored the RSA-896 semiprime using Anthropic’s Claude AI, setting a new public record and demonstrating how AI can accelerate classical cryptographic factoring.

2 sources. https://clstr.news/cluster/steve-weis-factors-rsa-896-using-anthropics-claude-ai

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Cite as: AI advancements in cryptographic problem solving. CLSTR, https://clstr.news/situations/ai-advancements-in-cryptographic-problem-solving