1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2021–2025score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
HN points to it as an intuitive explanation of how NIST standardized a backdoored generator.
Dr Mike Pound explains the suspected backdoor in the Dual_EC_DRBG random number generator and how elliptic curve constants could let someone predict its output.
“He also gives a super cool/intuitive breakdown on how this came to be.” (HN, 2025)
I recommend this video by Computerphile - He talks about how NIST may have been pressured into enforcing compromised (backdoored?) cryptography methods as a standard - Dual_EC_DRBG to be exact. He also gives a super cool/intuitive breakdown on how this came to be. It will definitely grow some food for thought. [this video]
Intuitive breakdown of how NIST standardized backdoored Dual_EC_DRBG
Computerphile[1] did a video about the specifics of the backdoor in Dual EC DRBG. As i understand it, the hackers replaced a magic number Q with a different value than the standards compliant one, where they had pre-computed P. [1]: [this video]
Computerphile video discussing the mathematics around how such a number could have been used in a practical way. [this video] [link] When people say, “Don’t roll your own crypto,” it’s because the field is littered with footguns and (to stretch an analogy) guns in cryptography launch explosives.
Math of how such a number could be used practically
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