# ROCA vs. ROBOT: Comparing Candidates for the 2018 Best Cryptographic Attack Pwnie Award

DevFeed: [ROCA vs. ROBOT: Comparing Candidates for the 2018 Best Cryptographic Attack Pwnie Award](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/roca-vs-robot-an-eternal-golden-braid-29169.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.latacora.com/blog/2018/08/08/roca-vs-robot/>)

Published: 2018-08-08T22:52:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Latacora](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/latacora.md>)

Topics: [Cryptography](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cryptography.md>), [Exploit](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/exploit.md>), [Security, Privacy and Abuse Prevention](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/security-privacy-and-abuse-prevention.md>), [email](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/email.md>), [TLS (Transport Layer Security)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/tls.md>)

Tags: [black-hat](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/black-hat.md>), [conference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conference.md>), [crypto](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/crypto.md>), [exploit](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/exploit.md>), [rsa](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rsa.md>), [vulnerabilities](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vulnerabilities.md>)

## AI overview

This commentary compares the ROCA RSA key generation flaw and the ROBOT "Return Of Bleichenbacher" attack as candidates for the 2018 Best Cryptographic Attack Pwnie award. It also considers Efail and IOTA as notable cryptographic research and attack work from the same period.

## Source excerpt

The ROCA RSA key generation flaw or ROBOT, the "Return Of Bleichenbacher" attack: which is most deserving of the "Best Cryptographic Attack" Pwnie award at the 2018 Black Hat USA conference? Only one can survive. Let us consider. Assume for the moment that it's down to those two: ROBOT and ROCA. But first take a moment to consider the best cases for the "runners up". They are all excellent; it was a very good year for crypto research.