Breakthrough Tracker record
RSA-260 has been factored, setting a public general-purpose record
Eric Lu published a 130-digit divisor of RSA-260. Dividing the 260-digit, 862-bit challenge number produces a second 130-digit factor, and multiplying the pair exactly reconstructs RSA-260.
← Back to the filtered Breakthrough Tracker
- Stable ID
math-rsa-260-factorization-2026- Revision
math-rsa-260-factorization-2026.v1- Field
- Mathematics · Computational number theory and integer factorization
- Evidence
- Tier 1 · Peer reviewed: No
- Record state
- Current · Exactly verified factorization; method undisclosed
- Last checked
AI role
The primary announcement does not disclose a method. Public reports conflict on whether AI assisted, so the tracker records the AI role as unknown rather than inferring one.
Record details
- Problem or result
- Factorization of the 260-decimal-digit, 862-bit RSA challenge number
- Authors
- Eric Lu
- Institutions
- Cognition (employer reported by Scientific American)
- Result date
- Factor announced September 3, 2026
Why it matters
RSA-260 is larger than the previously factored RSA-250 and is readily checkable once a factor is known, making it a clear computational-number-theory milestone.
Limits
The primary post supplies a factor but no algorithm, runtime, hardware, cost or reproducibility record. The result does not threaten modern 2048-bit RSA, and exact multiplication verifies the factorization without explaining how it was found.
Sources
- Primary: Eric Lu's RSA-260 divisor announcement
- Independent context: Scientific American, RSA-260 factorization analysis
- Independent verification: John D. Cook, new RSA number factored
Correction and revision history
- 2026-09-07 — Added after primary-source, scope, status, AI-role and limitation review.
Machine-readable: JSON v1 · CSV v1 · Schema v1
This individual record remains noindex until a story-specific featured image passes Kingy’s rendered-pixel visual review. The source-linked tracker hub remains the public index.