{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-06-deepmind-ai-agents-rsa-1024-cryptanalysis/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-06-deepmind-ai-agents-rsa-1024-cryptanalysis/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-11-06-deepmind-ai-agents-rsa-1024-cryptanalysis","date":"2026-11-06","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google DeepMind: human-guided AI agents find two new weaknesses in legacy 1024-bit RSA","deck":null,"takeaway":"No key was broken in practice and DeepMind says 2048-bit RSA is unaffected.","category":"research","category_label":"Research","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Pushmeet Kohli (X Article): Advancing the frontier of cryptanalysis","url":"https://x.com/pushmeet/status/2118752095859794390","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"x.com"},{"n":2,"title":"Google DeepMind on X (136k views)","url":"https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2118755418675765656","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"x.com"},{"n":3,"title":"Paper: Faster affine root and a 1024-bit computation (signatures)","url":"https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/papers/Faster_Affine_Root_and_a_1024bit%20Computation.pdf","type":"paper","group":"primary","domain":"storage.googleapis.com"},{"n":4,"title":"Paper: Multiple number fields in factorization factories and batch NFS","url":"https://storage.googleapis.com/deepmind-media/papers/Fan_Factories_Multiple_Number_Fields_in_Factorization_Factories_and_Batch_NFS.pdf","type":"paper","group":"primary","domain":"storage.googleapis.com"}],"official":4,"filed":"2026-11-08","updated":"2026-11-08","orgs":["Google DeepMind"],"title":"Google DeepMind: human-guided AI agents find two new weaknesses in legacy 1024-bit RSA (signature forgery and batch factoring)","summary":"On Nov 6, 2026 Google DeepMind published two technical papers in which AI agents, supervised by researchers and co-authored with cryptographers Nadia Heninger and Emmanuel Thomé, found cheaper attacks on obsolete 1024-bit RSA: a result on when padding stops protecting signatures against chosen-input forgery, and a batch number-field-sieve algorithm that cuts the per-key cost of factoring many 1024-bit keys by about 30x. No key was broken in practice and DeepMind says 2048-bit RSA is unaffected.","key_facts":["Scope stated by DeepMind: 'these results only affect obsolete 1024-bit RSA systems'; modern protocols using 2048-bit or larger keys 'remain secure'","Signatures: once an attacker controls roughly half or more of the signed block, padding adds no protection against forgery (chosen inputs to a signing device)","Demonstration in a sandbox on an already-factored 1024-bit benchmark key from an earlier academic study: forgery reproduced with 3.5x less CPU time than the prior method, under 1/1000 of the cost of factoring the key","For short controlled inputs (e.g. a 32-byte hash) a new algorithm improves on the previous best by ~1,600x for 1024-bit keys — a theoretical estimate, not run","Batch factoring: new algorithm with better asymptotic complexity ('factorization factories', batch NFS), ~30x lower average cost per additional 1024-bit key versus previous batch methods","Led by Dj Dvijotham and Abhradeep Thakurta (DeepMind Science), with Nadia Heninger (UC San Diego, Inria) and Emmanuel Thomé (Inria); announced by VP Science Pushmeet Kohli in an X Article","Papers are PDFs on DeepMind's storage, not peer-reviewed at announcement; the role split between agents and humans is described only as 'guided by humans'"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["cryptography","rsa","cryptanalysis","agents","security","number-field-sieve"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nGoogle DeepMind's Science team announced on Nov 6, 2026 (X post and an X Article by Pushmeet Kohli) that AI agents\n\"guided by human supervision\" uncovered \"two major weaknesses on legacy 1024-bit RSA-based cryptosystems, showing that\nthese systems can be compromised with a lower computational budget than previously thought possible.\" Details are in two\ntechnical papers linked from the article. Viral summaries (e.g. \"Google breaks RSA keys\") overstate it: no new key was\nfactored; the forgery demo used a key already factored in earlier work, and the 1,600x and 30x figures are cost estimates.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nAnother lab result (after Anthropic's July cryptanalysis work) arguing that AI agents can shift cryptographic hardness\nestimates faster than the usual years-long cadence; DeepMind frames it as a reason for proactive stress-testing.","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-10-29-deterministic-factoring-n-o1-lean-claude-rudich-rousseau","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-29-deterministic-factoring-n-o1-lean-claude-rudich-rousseau/","date":"2026-10-29","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Deterministic factoring in N^o(1) steps, Lean-checked, ideas by Claude","deck":null,"takeaway":"The best proven deterministic factoring algorithms ran in time N^(1/5+o(1)) (Harvey; Harvey–Hittmeir). On 29 Oct Isaac Rudich and Louis-Martin Rousseau (Polytechnique Montréal) posted on Hexagon a Lean 4 proof that one deterministic Turing machine finds the smallest prime factor of every N within C_k·2^(n/k) steps for every k, i.e. N^o(1). The 13-line statement uses only Mathlib and is registered in Palomar; the proof is about 36,000 lines. The authors say every idea and all Lean code came from Claude agents, which they asked to apply the ETH refutation to factoring; they audited the statement, not the proof. The algorithm is 'galactic' and slower than the randomised and heuristic methods used in practice; what is new is a proven deterministic N^o(1) bound.","category":"science","category_label":"Science & math","importance":4,"confidence":"medium","status":{"key":"pending","labels":["Awaiting review"]},"sources":3,"official":2,"filed":"2026-10-29","updated":"2026-10-31","orgs":["Anthropic","Polytechnique Montréal"]},{"id":"2026-10-07-justin-drake-bunker-mode-ai-cryptography","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-07-justin-drake-bunker-mode-ai-cryptography/","date":"2026-10-07","date_precision":"day","short_title":"After OpenAI's math release, Justin Drake urges crypto 'bunker mode' over AI-broken ECDSA","deck":"Vitalik Buterin warns lattices may take 'serious hits'","takeaway":"OpenAI's math release led prominent Ethereum researchers to say publicly that AI-accelerated mathematics could break widely used public-key cryptography (elliptic curves, possibly lattices) years before quantum computers, and to recommend defensive steps.","category":"policy-safety","category_label":"Policy & safety","importance":3,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":12,"official":0,"filed":"2026-10-08","updated":"2026-10-12","orgs":["Ethereum Foundation","OpenAI"]}],"people":[{"id":"pushmeet-kohli","name":"Pushmeet Kohli","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/pushmeet-kohli/"},{"id":"abhradeep-thakurta","name":"Abhradeep Thakurta","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/abhradeep-thakurta/"},{"id":"dj-dvijotham","name":"Dj Dvijotham","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/dj-dvijotham/"},{"id":"emmanuel-thome","name":"Emmanuel Thomé","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/emmanuel-thome/"},{"id":"nadia-heninger","name":"Nadia Heninger","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/nadia-heninger/"}],"posts":[{"id":"x-googledeepmind-2118755418675765656","title":"“We’re sharing new research demonstrating how AI agents can accelerate the science of…”","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-googledeepmind-2118755418675765656/"},{"id":"x-pushmeet-2118752095859794390","title":"Advancing the frontier of cryptanalysis","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-pushmeet-2118752095859794390/"}],"videos":[],"models":[],"changes":[{"date":"2026-11-08","type":"filed","text":"Created (missed on 11-07)"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-11-08","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-11-08","human_review":null,"version":{"date":"2026-11-08"}},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":190,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":129,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-argon","name":"Gemini 4 Argon","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":220,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":159,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":"https://postcutoff.com/s/google-deepmind-human-guided-ai"}