The NIST Elliptic Curves Seeds Bounty Has Been Claimed

The seeds of the NIST elliptic curves were recently discovered to be generated through a specific algorithm. This revelation provides clarity on how these curves, including P-192, P-224, P-256, P-384, and P-521, were created. The algorithm used involved seeding the POSIX-standard drand48 random number generator with the current UNIX timestamp and then deriving the curve parameters from the resulting sequence of bytes.

The process involved discarding any seed that did not produce a valid curve, leading to a smaller set of eligible seeds. The discovery was made by a team of developers from Anthropic, who successfully claimed a $36,864 bounty announced three years prior. The team consisted of individuals such as John Wood, Henry de Valence, and Steve Weis.

Their findings dispel the mystery surrounding the origin of the seeds and contribute to the understanding of cryptographic history. The algorithm used is simple, making it reproducible and verifiable by the cryptographic community. The discovery also provides reassurance about the security of the NIST curves, as the cryptographic community had previously considered them to be secure.