AI-Assisted Attack Cuts HAWK-512 Key-Recovery Cost Estimate to 2^108 Gates
Photo: TokenPost
An AI-assisted cryptanalysis result sharply lowered the estimated work needed to recover a HAWK-512 signing key, and the HAWK team later withdrew the candidate from a U.S. standards review. The work factor assigned to HAWK-512 key recovery fell from 2^150 to 2^108 gate operations. Researchers used Claude Mythos Preview and demonstrated recovery only against HAWK-256, a reduced-size challenge; a full-scale attack on HAWK-512 remains impractical. Anthropic disclosed the result July 28, 2026, and HAWK’s team withdrew the proposal from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) additional-signatures review on July 29.
Source: TokenPost
