Show HN: Dual Elliptic Curve Math Backdoor in Python
a year ago
- #Cryptography
- #Python
- #Security
- The NSA hid a secret mathematical backdoor in the Dual EC DRBG cryptographic standard in 2006, allowing the US government to decrypt SSL internet traffic.
- The backdoor was discovered by Microsoft researchers in 2007, revealing that the Dual EC algorithm's vulnerability lies in the Q value, which could be manipulated.
- A Python implementation demonstrates how the backdoor works, showing that 28 bytes of RNG data can be predicted in 2 minutes on a home computer.
- Insecure random number generators (RNGs) have been exploited in various attacks, including hijacking Hacker News accounts and compromising Bitcoin wallets on Android.
- The article provides a technical deep dive into coding the Dual EC RNG and its backdoor, including generating backdoor constants and predicting RNG outputs.