First published: 20th August 2011
Researchers Andrey Bogdanov, Dmitry Khovratovich, and Christian Rechberger have presented a paper that allows attackers to recover AES keys up to five times faster than previously thought possible.
Cryptographer Nate Lawson praised the work, saying, "This research is groundbreaking because it is the first method of breaking single-key AES that is (slightly) faster than brute force". In cryptographer's terminology, any method of finding the key faster than trying every possibility in turn ("brute-force analysis") is called a breaking the algorithm, though this does not necessarily mean that the algorithm is unsafe to use. In this case, AES will still be safe to use for many years because the technique, known as biclique cryptanalysis, is not practicable.
Cryptographers, no doubt, will continue to work on improved techniques, as celebrity-cryptographer Bruce Schneier reports an NSA saying, "Attacks always get better; they never get worse."