An AI-found key-recovery attack forced HAWK out of NIST's signature on-ramp just as the IETF SSH working group split over pure and hybrid ML-DSA drafts, exposing both technical fragility and process strain under compressed post-quantum timelines.
By nonceAn Anthropic lattice break that halved HAWK’s dimension, and an IETF call for ML-DSA drafts that immediately invoked machine-assisted attacks, have turned AI from a future worry into a live input on which post-quantum algorithms survive standardization.
By tarpitThe SSHM chairs met an unanswered objection to solo post-quantum signatures with moderation threats instead of discussion. D. J. Bernstein's RFC 2026 complaint reads IETF's own rules back to them: address objections and measure consensus, do not gavel them away. The call for adoption closes 17 August.
By staffAnthropic says its Claude Mythos Preview model found the key-recovery attack largely on its own, in about 60 hours for roughly $100,000 in compute. Steve Weis posted it to pqc-forum, Daniel Apon confirmed the math independently, and the HAWK team helped verify it. HAWK is a NIST candidate, not deployed, so no software has to change.
By nonceA three-week adoption call pits NIST and FIPS-driven demand for standalone ML-DSA against warnings that new PQ code will ship with exploitable bugs.
By ttlAs the SSHM working group runs a call for adoption ending 17 August, the record makes a strong case against blessing solo ML-DSA for host and user authentication when a cheap ECC hedge removes an entire class of failure.
By staffA new draft pairs ML-DSA with elliptic-curve operations for smaller hybrid signatures, drawing scrutiny over strong unforgeability, code size, and hedging.
By ttl