Anthropic says Claude traced P-256 curve seed to a 1997 timestamp
Anthropic publishes a recipe for the P-256 seed
Anthropic said on Oct. 16 that its AI model Claude helped reconstruct the public seed behind P-256, a cryptographic curve standardized by NIST. That curve is supported for passkey signing on Ethereum.
The seed is a public design input used to derive a coefficient in the curve's equation. Anthropic says it is separate from the private signing credentials that authorize wallet activity.
Anthropic says unexplained seeds supplied by the U.S. National Security Agency had fueled suspicion that the curve's parameters were deliberately weakened.
How the reconstruction works
- Anthropic's published recipe starts the old C-library generator lrand48 with the timestamp Aug. 16, 1997, at 01:52:34 UTC.
- The generator produces a sequence of candidate seeds. Advancing to candidate 1,842 returns the published P-256 value, giving a repeatable recipe for that public constant.
- Anthropic says the result makes deliberate backdoors less plausible.
- Anthropic describes no new attack or curve weakness and says users need take no action.
What Anthropic says about the finding
Anthropic published the research on its website. The company says the reconstruction offers a repeatable way to reproduce the public constant rather than a new flaw in the curve.
The Ethereum passkey link
Ethereum connects to P-256, also called secp256r1, through EIP-7951. That proposal specifies verification of signatures using the curve.
EIP-7951 names Apple Secure Enclave, Android Keystore and FIDO2/WebAuthn devices as relevant hardware. This links wallet authorization to signing capabilities built into devices and authenticators.
EIP-7951's stated motivation lists device-native signing, multifactor authentication and simpler key management as uses for account abstraction. Its P256VERIFY operation takes a message hash, a signature and a public key, then checks whether the signature is valid.
P-256 is not the curve Ethereum already uses
P-256 differs from secp256k1, the curve already used in Ethereum. CryptoSlate reports the relevance is to P-256-compatible signing, rather than every Ethereum wallet.
Ethereum's account documentation distinguishes private keys that sign transactions from public information used to verify them. Contract accounts are controlled by code.
What is confirmed
- Anthropic said on Oct. 16 that Claude helped reconstruct the public seed behind P-256.
- The company published a recipe using a specific 1997 timestamp and candidate 1,842.
- Anthropic says no user action is needed and describes no new attack or curve weakness.
- EIP-7951 specifies P-256 signature verification and names device hardware used for signing.
What is still unclear
Anthropic reports that candidate 876 also produced a prime-order curve of the required size, leaving the selection criteria unclear.
The number of generation runs and the origin of P-256's base point, a separate fixed mathematical point, remain unknown.
Why it matters for passkey wallets
The finding speaks to a long-standing question about where P-256's parameters came from. CryptoSlate says the result gives wallet builders new evidence about a concern over the curve's origins.
Since EIP-7951 ties P-256 to hardware-backed signing and authenticators, builders working on passkey wallets have a reason to follow the research. According to CryptoSlate, the reconstructed public seed stays separate from the private credentials that actually authorize wallet activity.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.