Definition
NIST standardized elliptic curves (P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, P-521) in FIPS 186-2 using SHA-1–derived parameters from opaque “seed” values. For decades the seed generation method was unknown, fueling backdoor speculation.
Key Points
- 2026-10-16: anthropic reports claude reconstructed generation: POSIX
lrand48/drand48seeded with Unix timestamps (1997–1998), e.g. P-256 at candidate 1,842 from August 16, 1997 (2026-10-16-anthropic-ecdsa-curve-origins) - Filippo Valsorda independently verified in Go; bounty donated to ISRG (2026-10-16-filippo-valsorda-nist-seeds-bounty)
Not a break: reproducible weak RNG history does not imply practical attacks on deployed ECDSA keys; no rotation required for practitioners.