---
title: "Claude traces NIST curve seeds to a simple random generator"
url: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/claude-traces-nist-curve-seeds-to-a-simple-random-generator-5552d0
source_name: "The Decoder"
source_url: https://the-decoder.com/anthropics-claude-cracks-a-25-year-old-nsa-cryptography-mystery-in-under-30-minutes/
published: 2026-10-17T14:42:56.000Z
topics: ["research", "security", "llms"]
publisher: "Parallel Quant"
---

# Claude traces NIST curve seeds to a simple random generator

*2026-10-17 · Source: [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com/anthropics-claude-cracks-a-25-year-old-nsa-cryptography-mystery-in-under-30-minutes/)*

Anthropic's Claude worked out in under 30 minutes that the mysterious seeds behind NIST's standard digital-signature curves, supplied by the NSA, came from lrand48, a simple C random number generator. The origin of those seeds had gone unexplained for about 25 years.

**Why it matters:** The unexplained seeds fed long-running suspicion that the curves hid a backdoor. A mundane origin makes deliberate tampering less likely, though it does not prove it. It is also a concrete example of models resolving old technical puzzles quickly, in line with the recent wave of AI-generated math and security results.

**Topics:** research, security, llms

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Read the original: https://the-decoder.com/anthropics-claude-cracks-a-25-year-old-nsa-cryptography-mystery-in-under-30-minutes/
Canonical: https://www.parallelquant.com/posts/claude-traces-nist-curve-seeds-to-a-simple-random-generator-5552d0
Published by Parallel Quant — https://www.parallelquant.com