We broke 92% of SHA-256 – you should start to migrate from it
5 hours ago
- #Cryptography
- #SHA-256
- #Blockchain
- Researchers achieved a 92% break of SHA-256 across all 64 rounds, signaling potential vulnerability to collision attacks soon.
- The breakthrough combines complex analytical reasoning with low-level C programming, uncovering new relations that simplify further searches.
- A world record was set by attacking full 64 rounds with 92% schedule compliance, differing significantly from previous reduced-round records.
- Potential implications for Bitcoin mining were hinted at, suggesting future work could solve proof of work challenges in minutes.
- Future directions include incorporating more algebraic and statistical theorems, and developing a custom solver based on SHA-256 properties.
- All research files and a detailed paper are made available for reproduction and further study.
- Encouragement from leading cryptographers supported the publication of these findings, despite not achieving a full collision.