Anthropic AI Exposes Flaw in Quantum-Resistant Signature Algorithm in Record Time

A recent breakthrough by Anthropic's AI model Claude Mythos Preview has exposed a significant vulnerability in HAWK, a quantum-resistant digital signature algorithm. The model discovered an attack technique that halves the effective key strength of HAWK within just 60 hours, with a computing cost of around $100,000.

HAWK had previously passed two rounds of review over two years by a group of experts, but this new finding has raised concerns about the algorithm's security. The researchers emphasized that the attack does not directly affect the current security of Bitcoin or Ethereum, as both networks use elliptic curve signatures that were not targeted in the attack.

The discovery is significant because it highlights the rapid advancement of cryptographic attack techniques. Anthropic's research also showed improved attack efficiency against other algorithms, including AES and Poseidon hash function. The team first notified HAWK's developers of the vulnerability in June and later disclosed the results after consulting NIST's public mailing list.