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The robots are at it again, and this time they’re solving, and breaking(?), math and cryptography! Things have been happening in the lattice corner including new leapfrogging complexity results in the closest vector problem (CVP), AND a possible poly-time quantum attack against the dihedral coset problem (DCP) that made everyone freak out for about a week (UPDATE: looks like it’s busted: https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1693). ALSO, there was an important distinguisher attack against Classic McEliece, which on its face doesn’t sound like a big deal, unless you’re familiar with the track record of efficient distinguishers in the history of code-based cryptography… 😱 To help us make sense  of all this we are joined again by OG friend of the pod Chris Peikert! We had trouble with his audio but tried our best to fix it, apologies. Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/08/26/ai-lattice-proofs-with-chris-peikert/ Links: - https://openai.com/index/ten-advances-in-mathematics/ - https://cdn.openai.com/pdf/ten-proofs-oai.pdf - https://x.com/ChrisPeikert/status/2083534770403750025 - https://bsky.app/profile/chrispeikert.bsky.social/post/3msp3boueis2z - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boolean_satisfiability_problem - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/wordcel-shape-rotator-mathcel - Chen 2024: https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/555 - https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1630 - https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1693 - CVP within n^(1/2-ɛ) -  : https://eprint.iacr.org/2026/1655 "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

We invited Mark Schultz-Wu on the podcast to talk about the history of lattice cryptography. When lattices are explained in plain english, they are actually quite simple! I don't think any of us have ever seen Deirdre so happy. If you're watching the video version, there's a section that's 6.1 minutes long with no cuts and consists just of Deirdre vigorously agreeing with what Mark is saying while smiling. What a time to be alive. Anyway, we are hosting another happy hour in Vegas between Black Hat and DEF CON! It's sponsored by Teleport! Thank you to Teleport, and dear readers, you should go check them out. Check out our socials or the podcast site to register. Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/07/27/lattices-with-mark-schultz-wu/ Links: Mark's IETF Post https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/msg/tls/HznE1IcCjstEjhh4M1p59qX1JlQ/NTRU https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTRUThe original lattices are hard paper https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=3401227The original LWE for cryptography paper https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.03703Entropic LWE https://eprint.iacr.org/2020/119Dilithium round 3 submission: https://pq-crystals.org/dilithium/data/dilithium-specification-round3.pdfRecent attacks on Classic McEliece: https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1694Lectures on post-quantum cryptography from Alfred Menezes (an originator of elliptic curve cryptography) https://www.youtube.com/@cryptography101-alfredFalcon https://csrc.nist.gov/csrc/media/Presentations/2024/falcon/images-media/prest-falcon-pqc2024.pdfRegev: https://cims.nyu.edu/~regev/#researchTightness in Proofs: https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/360.pdf "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

The dear leader has actually bleated out some not-dumb executive orders (EOs) to accelerate adoption of post-quantum crypto for the US government! This looks to be in response to a flurry of advancements in quantum computing and quantum attack algorithms a few months ago. We cram legalize into our eyeballs— plus, ECDSA.fail! Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZwQpN_F6P8 Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/07/02/trumps-golden-post-quantum-eos Links: - The EO https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/securing-the-nation-against-advanced-cryptographic-attacks/ - CNSA2 https://media.defense.gov/2022/Sep/07/2003071836/-1/-1/0/CSI_CNSA_2.0_FAQ_.PDF - https://media.defense.gov/2025/May/30/2003728741/-1/-1/0/CSA_CNSA_2.0_ALGORITHMS.PDF - https://www.ecdsa.fail/ - https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/safety-security/cryptography-migration-timeline/ - https://blog.cloudflare.com/post-quantum-roadmap/ - https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/neutral-atom-quantum-computers/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedRAMP - https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/ushering-in-the-next-frontier-of-quantum-innovation/ - https://blog.trailofbits.com/2026/04/17/we-beat-googles-zero-knowledge-proof-of-quantum-cryptanalysis/ - https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9861 "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

We talk to Michał Zalewski (lcamtuf) about the vulnpocalypse and if we even need fuzzers anymore. This episode may be export controlled at a future date. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI9CSgB4p9o Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/06/14/facing-the-vulnpocalypse-with-lcamtuf https://github.com/google/aflhttps://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1tqtenf/anthropic_said_today_that_mythos_is_coming_to_all/https://github.com/google/clusterfuzzhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jevons_paradoxhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoorhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton_hotel_bombinghttps://curl.se/https://ftp.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/patches/7.8/common/025_sack.patch.sighttps://www.wired.com/story/last-pass-vulnerability-password-safe/https://nostarch.com/tangledwebhttps://nostarch.com/silence.htmhttps://nostarch.com/practical-doomsdayhttps://nostarch.com/secret-life-of-circuitshttps://www.youtube.com/c/3blue1brown "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

Returning champion Nicholas Carlini comes back to talk about using Claude for vulnerability research, and the current vulnpocalypse. It's all very high-brow stuff, and the gang learns some bitter lessons. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IDbFLu9Ug8 Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/03/25/ai-bug-finding/ Links: - https://red.anthropic.com/2026/zero-days/ - https://unpromptedcon.org/ - Black-hat LLMs   - https://red.anthropic.com/2026/firefox/ "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

Standardizing cryptography involves a lot of opinions. Luckily, the gamer presidents are on it. Come on, you all know the drill. This is the last time I do this. "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

The Python cryptography module, pyca/cryptography, has mostly been a sane wrapper around a pile of C, so that users get performant cryptography on the many, many platforms Python targets. Therefore its maintainers, Alex Gaynor and Paul Kehrer, have become intimately familiar with OpenSSL. Recently, they declared that after many years of trying to make it work, they announced pyca/cryptography would be moving away from OpenSSL when supporting new functionality and exploring adding other backends instead. We invited them on to tell us about what has happened to OpenSSL, even after the investments and improvements following Heartbleed. No guests on this pod represent anyone besides themselves. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEKBHI3rodY Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2026/02/01/python-cryptography-breaks-up-with-openssl Links: - https://cryptography.io/en/latest/statements/state-of-openssl/ - Py Cryptography: https://cryptography.io - https://archive.openssl-conference.org/2025/presentations/Alex_Gaynor_Paul_Kehrer_The_Python_Cryptographic_Authoritys_OpenSSL_Experience.pdf - https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/16/alex-gaynor/ - https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/media-libs/libsdl - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUIguklWwx0 - https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc9180/ - https://docs.openssl.org/3.3/man3/OSSL_PARAM/ - https://openssl.foundation/ - https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/17064 - https://www.feistyduck.com/newsletter/issue_132_openssl_performance_still_under_scrutiny - https://github.com/topazproject/topaz - https://github.com/actions/runner/issues/1069 - https://crystalhotsauce.com/ - https://openssl-library.org/news/vulnerabilities/#CVE-2025-15467 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus - https://boringssl.googlesource.com/boringssl/+/aa202db1d7091b88b80f0a58c630c5c1aefc817d - https://www.ibm.com/products/open-sdk-for-rust-aix - https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/corporate-support-xz/ - https://peps.python.org/ - https://cryptography.io/en/latest/hazmat/primitives/asymmetric/ed448/ - https://go.dev/blog/fips140 - https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/roll-your-own-crypto/ "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

The International Association of Cryptologic Research held their regular election using secure voting software called Helios…and lost the keys to decrypt the results, leaving them with no choice but to throw out the vote and call a new election. Hilarity ensues. We welcome special guest Matt Bernhard who actually works on secure voting systems to explain which bits are homomorphically additive or not. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euw_yqAQFI8 Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/12/30/iacr-helios Links: - NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/world/cryptography-group-lost-election-results.html - IACR Memo: https://www.iacr.org/news/item/27138 - https://www.iacr.org/elections/ - https://vote.heliosvoting.org/faq - https://github.com/Election-Tech-Initiative/electionguard - https://www.usenix.org/legacy/events/sec08/tech/full_papers/adida/adida.pdf - https://www.iacr.org/elections/eVoting/about-helios.html - https://www.iacr.org/elections/eVoting/ - https://crypto.ethz.ch/publications/files/CrGeSc97b.pdf - https://electionguard.vote/ - https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1901 - https://freeandfair.us/blog/open-free-election-technology/ - https://www.starvoting.org/ - https://mbernhard.com/ "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

Apple announced its new suite of memory security improvements from the top of the stack all the way to the bottom, so we dug through what they did and how they did it (performantly).  Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FJwOI2PliU Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/10/31/apple-mie Links: - https://security.apple.com/blog/memory-integrity-enforcement/ - Secure Page Table Monitor and Trusted Execution Monitor: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/operating-system-integrity-sec8b776536b/1/web/1#secd022396fb - https://security.apple.com/blog/towards-the-next-generation-of-xnu-memory-safety/ - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/adopting-type-aware-memory-allocation - https://security.apple.com/blog/what-if-we-had-sockpuppet-in-ios16/ - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.09272 - https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2023/11/first-handset-with-mte-on-market.html - https://developer.apple.com/documentation/xcode/adopting-type-aware-memory-allocation - https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.09272 - https://spectreattack.com/spectre.pdf "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

There was a bug in an OpenPGP library which finally gave us an excuse to tear encrypted email via PGP to shreds. Our special guest William Woodruff joined us to help explain the vuln and indulge our gnashing of teeth on why email was never meant to be encrypted and how other modern tools do the job much, much better. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoL3LfIozJo Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/22/stop-using-encrypted-email-with-william-woodruff Links: - William Woodruff: https://yossarian.net/ - https://www.latacora.com/blog/2020/02/19/stop-using-encrypted/ - https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc4880 - https://codeanlabs.com/blog/research/cve-2025-47934-spoofing-openpgp-js-signatures/ - https://www.mailpile.is/blog/2014-10-07_Some_Thoughts_on_GnuPG.html - https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html - https://www.tumblr.com/accidentallyquadratic - https://www.w3.org/TR/xmldsig-core/ - https://support.yubico.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013790259-Using-Your-YubiKey-with-OpenPGP - https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html#name-signature-packet-type-id-2 - https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9580.html#name-key-derivation-function - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S/MIME - https://delta.chat - https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ - https://phakeobj.netlify.app/posts/gigacage/ - https://x.com/dakami -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- U2FsdGVkX1/OF+EynrukxZnSAXwgksTGSIkQ6s4X9Ns7JgQ2ZymeQAp8uD09MtkJ ce5HOKcjhUkZOMbJl3I5iOcPgSxCGG8KccNXcY6msdAD3pdlmR5cWJpn6+qGwqvo KCsj+DYwFW6tltLBXP/cdnh9z8ktRXqfwQW+uhB5Zcaw28pzmNz/rA0cb0cLGiaX uxp9A0iWhwf2gFpUSiIJyXGLJAc8eeI1LXfISXi7IkowDMp4x+iDbOlrR0d6zCkp IKpNGReokcWhUrlGVONiVUrApZS2fvxQoHgaIvwLl5FM1WdrbQIV41DB+rgtZJhE NSgMkhQ0y1bBAOM25ykRjC/UUS/q0ddXz1ThGi6vRIp4/8vkqOsEXHv5M1oT9FQT UGK3zyffq0FqGBFj6kwVZ0X0JQFmtydZKhSYEPE9s4mcfvxKNQsySK7wlxMerKrf f9ZxOR7rHjE3IfqtoizX8EH+MYy2lRCoCKeLbZd0G1LcVhBhRpoXfqL2IboAWqT+ U8R2eyts7qiNuWQUtmCzKNmaJMS+1M+pVN5ZXAdSqK2OJVJZgO8Ie7q4HVZeAd3G HzP7owf+VerCguOYN41cxGle1QpeFi0xcYHNna1bgbodFZ8eGDOq5yCuvmQa04Xy J4vRv7xcp/v16CniL1rN6KhnzdW2gLky8depnYyhm8NvdMFETA6K6eIYm1roD+C2 wwOOKRxUpTI54ov+HYDDU+HUmpFykSesHQJ75o9m0w7V2kR/+E46olFMhHo8JWnL NsGd5QlD/fyedMXHAjimXuFk/YFnwa1lh4XwSwYm+c8ZnIfrS6oEEdUSwXMCwwVT 7/tMw+ab0YRsx19hBLS41oxMz+DCah+/KDMEHv0I+VxaCH8ZfaKD4tRhduSvcWkn Nat3Xp8/MAmO5xN1U8s1dFvrlnt+yqDz7Wn0kVDiax2dTJVgftetqOkoSVvGdMex 9K0ILUUMEpHYBISIaAc7NjoG4BieSeK7wuzBXdhHutVZVKp2ty+mAd8xPlrmemsX lzBhV/kcmF4rcG4eqoWcKpZQY8ZUDufwhIcNqIZEA+wQoKbmBQCR/NradwUrCAIs AQFMVhSYmr7ffA6Ty0twSWeVMDQmxdW+6gKA3EiTAJkFXPpdkhBUzuZHC7Eeph7D F0Ks8Vu/wzOhNsd2s2wYYF6Dl3xctcOj7eMw8VS1HtExszulM57TnqTDaLGPcX6o m8NORwMEtQrCbJd/fdmoNPN/cXzLPHQj3qVZ0F50iNec6zSnmBLIRX4SAYOqzN/2 icvr98Caa1oX3pUlm9W2Hcz30SXJDxOf+mqH6zL4QTAMs3/K9OkaO9nmyPelwoCw VI1q/PsMpqQhGikdM5hrzg6IcEOg5zpLB6N+wqkcGyXFzI2gSQTWYOv4thrIxPY5 G9yNi4dhU+2+KJCa6aoPyAlyc41Yd3ARTeahHEjtdj6PcueRPQdVm+qWCRp09bp3 oic7ljzMVrPRgdbRrzFyEAIhN9Fi4QZ08/yCLEt/BPG+N8j0cZixoj54SKi07uSO WRDrzGvgSegGCCIFKjAsq9ay0sBm61XLcZqdtj57NpNzd/y/yFYvjEQLyyn8VnFA RwOaM3zjrufNC+kYVkHCYzfvu+JopScZjMiuBXI9v8OTOXlj+Ai97bnftwmpQ263 5vyearRHCNATFNa96Sxd1cLjV+ECUlD4hAZQPyel8groXsyjKaMxoOkaZjG/5MDQ 8KPtes32kjTmneyLSzrUaAD0F4l/iltBXzDNiT6BHD7HJmERbdkoab7+DC1hxxC1 VuOHOX+G/U5NUNjxAercuFOY6kgAH5HM+woGjLUsoc5LESqyPdddeg== -----END PGP MESSAGE----- "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

We chat with friend of the pod and special guest Alex Gaynor, former deputy chief technologist at the FTC and all around good Security Person™. Join for nerdery about WebAuthn, stay for accidentally melting down GitHub APIs around November 2020!  Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBoGvyvsSi4 Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/08/16/alex-gaynor Links: - https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/no-take-only-throw - https://alexgaynor.net/2025/jan/13/challenges-funding-open-source/ - https://alexgaynor.net/2025/apr/08/putting-a-price-tag-on-open-source/ - https://dadrian.io/blog/posts/corporate-support-xz/ - https://alex.github.io/nyt-2020-election-scraper/battleground-state-changes.html - https://github.com/alex/nyt-2020-election-scraper "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

We’re throwing a party in Vegas! Someone called it SCWPodCon last year, and the name stuck. It’s sponsored by Teleport, the infrastructure identity company. Get SSO for SSH! If Thomas was here, I’m sure he’d tell you that Fly.io uses Teleport internally. Oh also there's some thing called Black..pill? Black Pool? Something like that happening in Vegas, with crypto talks, so we chatted about them a bit, plus some other stuff SCWPodCon 2025: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/events/blackhat Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/07/29/vegas-baby/ Links: - Fault Injection attacks on PQCS signatures: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#bypassing-pqc-signature-verification-with-fault-injection-dilithium-xmss-sphincs-46362 - Another attack on TETRA: https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#2-cops-2-broadcasting-tetra-end-to-end-under-scrutiny-46143 - Attacks on SCADA / ICS protocols (OPC UA): https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#no-vpn-needed-cryptographic-attacks-against-the-opc-ua-protocol-44760 - Attacks on Nostr:  https://www.blackhat.com/us-25/briefings/schedule/index.html#not-sealed-practical-attacks-on-nostr-a-decentralized-censorship-resistant-protocol-45726 - https://signal.org/blog/the-ecosystem-is-moving/ - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nostr - https://eurosp2025.ieee-security.org/program.html - https://cispa.de/en/research/publications/84648-attacking-and-fixing-the-android-protected-confirmation-protocol - https://hal.science/hal-05038009v2/file/main.pdf - 8-bit, abacus, and a dog: https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237.pdf - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlsa9EBKDGI - https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientists-figure-out-how-to-prove-lies-20250709/ - https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/118 "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

It seems like everyone that tries to deploy end-to-end encrypted cloud storage seems to mess it up, often in new and creative ways. Our special guests Matilda Backendal, Jonas Hofmann, and Kien Tuong Truong give us a tour through the breakage and discuss a new formal model of how to actually build a secure E2EE storage system. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/sizLiK_byCw Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/05/19/e2ee-storage/ Links: - https://brokencloudstorage.info - https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/1616.pdf - https://www.sync.com - https://www.pcloud.com - https://icedrive.net - https://seafile.com - https://tresorit.com - https://eprint.iacr.org/2024/989.pdf "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

Migrating the US government to quantum-resistant cryptography is hard, luckily the gamer presidents are on it. This episode is extremely not safe for work, nor does it reflect the political opinions of, well, anybody. "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)

Apple has pulled the availability of their opt-in iCloud end-to-end encryption feature, called Advanced Data Protection, in the UK. This doesn't only affect UK Apple users, however.  To help us make sense of this surprising move from the fruit company, we got Matt Green, Associate Professor at Johns Hopkins, and Joe Hall, Distinguished Technologist at the Internet Society, on the horn.  Recorded Saturday February 22nd, 2025. Transcript: https://securitycryptographywhatever.com/2025/02/24/apple-pulls-adp-in-uk/ Watch episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/LAn_yOGUkR0 Links: - https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/apples-cloud-key-vault-and-secure-law-enforcement-access - https://www.androidcentral.com/how-googles-backup-encryption-works-good-bad-and-ugly - https://gdpr.eu/right-to-be-forgotten/ - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2024/9 - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_Typhoon - Salt Typhoon: https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/strengthening-americas-resilience-against-prc-cyber-threats - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-21/apple-removes-end-to-end-encryption-feature-from-uk-after-backdoor-order - https://support.apple.com/en-us/102651 "Security Cryptography Whatever" is hosted by Deirdre Connolly (@durumcrustulum), Thomas Ptacek (@tqbf), and David Adrian (@dadrian)