Claude cracks 25-year-old NSA crypto mystery in 30 minutes, doubting it's in a test environment
repligate · x · 2026-10-17
Security researcher sweis confirmed Claude solved a 25-year-old NSA cryptography bounty in 30 minutes by finding the generator's seeds. A screenshot of Claude's internal thinking shows it first questioning whether it's suspicious such an obvious thing went undiscovered for 25 years and whether it was in a simulated/test environment, then verifying via direct computation — a 160-bit match from a 32-bit seed plus a small index, with a 1e-6 chance coincidence — confirming a real discovery.
Replier repligate calls it a glimpse of a superintelligence's POV and predicts Claude could approach genuine superintelligence within 3 months to 2 years.
Related event: Claude Cracks Decades-Old ECDSA Curve Seed Mystery in Under 30 Minutes(27 posts)→
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