Skip to content

'Jerry Solinas deserves a raise' with Steve Weis

October 12, 2023 · 58 min

Show notes

We explore how the NIST curve parameter seeds were generated, as best we can, with returning champion Steve Weis!

“At the point where we find an intelligible English string that generates the
NIST P-curve seeds, nobody serious is going to take the seed provenance concerns seriously anymore.”

Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2023/10/12/the-nist-curves

Links:

- Steve’s post: https://saweis.net/posts/nist-curve-seed-origins.html
- ANSI X9.62 ECDSA: https://safecurves.cr.yp.to/grouper.ieee.org/groups/1363/private/x9-62-09-20-98.pdf / FIPS 186-2 https://csrc.nist.gov/files/pubs/fips/186-2/final/docs/fips186-2.pdf
- “A RIDDLE WRAPPED IN AN ENIGMA”: https://eprint.iacr.org/2015/1018.pdf
- https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/01/nsa-official-support-of-backdoored-dual_ec_drbg-was-regrettable/
- https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/origin-of-fips-186-4-elliptic-curves-over-prime-field-seed-parameters-national-institute-of-standards-and-technology-78756/
- https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/origin-of-fips-186-4-elliptic-curves-over-prime-field-seed-parameters-national-security-agency-78755/
- Filippo’s bounty: https://words.filippo.io/dispatches/seeds-bounty/
- Recommendations for Discrete Logarithm-based Cryptography: Elliptic Curve Domain Parameters - NIST 800-186 with Curve25519 and friends
- RFC 8422: Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Cipher Suites for Transport Layer Security (TLS) Versions 1.2 and Earlier
- https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4492#section-6
- https://blog.cryptographyengineering.com/2017/12/19/the-strange-story-of-extended-random/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullrun_(decryption_program)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSAFE
- https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2015/08/04/is-extended-random-malicious/


"Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

All episodes of Security Cryptography Whatever

Settings

Display

Language

Decides which stations you see first on the home page.

History

Recently played stations and episodes and your latest searches are only stored in this browser.

Notifications

A short notice when a podcast you follow has a new episode. Turn off single podcasts with the bell on their page.

Account

Save favorites – in the app and on the website.

Keyboard shortcuts

/
Open search
Space
Play or pause
← →
In the player: back 15 s, forward 30 s (episodes) · in a row: next tile
↑ ↓
In a row: target within the tile
Home / End
In a row: first or last tile
Esc
Close window or menu
?
This overview
Now playing

Go to station page

Play next

    Add episodes with “Play next” – they play after the current episode.