Mythos attack on 3rd-round PQC algorithm candidate puts it out of commission
7 hours ago
- The HAWK quantum-resistant cryptography algorithm was withdrawn from NIST consideration after Anthropic's Mythos AI model found a security flaw that made it broken.
- HAWK had passed two rounds of NIST testing for PQC algorithms but failed in the third round designed to catch advanced flaws.
- Mythos AI also identified weaknesses in the AES cipher, though both findings are described as incremental and not breaking current systems.
- The tests used weakened versions of cryptosystems; the real versions used in production are more robust.
- Despite possible marketing hype, these results signal important advances in AI-assisted cryptography breaking that could impact privacy and security.
- The flaw was discovered by Anthropic's Mythos AI security model, which highlighted mathematical weaknesses in HAWK's signature scheme.