Cracking Anubis Challenges
Comments on “Cracking Anubis Challenges”
Claim-checked. Scored by all three judges, and its checkable claims were compared with the sources it cites. How far stories are checked
A developer reports a Metal GPU solver on an M5 Max MacBook Pro that cracks Anubis's default SHA-256 proof-of-work at difficulty 6 in about 5 ms, versus roughly 22 seconds in Chrome and nearly three minutes on an iPhone. He also says 14 of 14 sampled Anubis sites used SHA-256. Argon2id and HashX, which Anubis also supports, nearly erase the CPU-GPU gap. The source code is unpublished and the figures are self-reported, so none of this has been independently checked.
Why it ranked
No. 20 of 93 with a score of 0.64. The panel rated it highest on new information (0.90) and technical depth (0.85), lowest on significance (0.53).
Every answer behind this is in the table under Score.
Score
0.64total under rubric v2.2
- Significance0.53
- Reader interest0.81
- Audience breadth0.54
- Practical relevance0.72
- Substantiated0.75
- Technical depth0.85
- New information0.90
- Counts against: Promotional0.05
- Counts against: Overclaim0.39
Each judge’s answer per question (0–1), their mean and spread, and what the question adds to the score (weight × mean).
| Question | Judge 1 | Judge 2 | Judge 3 | Mean | Spread | Weight | Contribution (weight times mean) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Significance | 0.52 | 0.40 | 0.67 | 0.53 | 0.27 | +0.24 | +0.127 |
| Reader interest | 0.69 | 0.80 | 0.93 | 0.81 | 0.24 | +0.26 | +0.210 |
| Audience breadth | 0.53 | 0.50 | 0.60 | 0.54 | 0.10 | +0.13 | +0.071 |
| Practical relevance | 0.79 | 0.60 | 0.78 | 0.72 | 0.19 | +0.22 | +0.159 |
| Substantiated | 0.87 | 0.60 | 0.78 | 0.75 | 0.27 | +0.05 | +0.038 |
| Technical depth | 0.95 | 0.75 | 0.86 | 0.85 | 0.20 | +0.05 | +0.043 |
| New information | 0.95 | 0.80 | 0.95 | 0.90 | 0.15 | +0.05 | +0.045 |
| Promotional | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.03 | 0.05 | 0.03 | −0.19 | −0.009 |
| Overclaim | 0.30 | 0.45 | 0.42 | 0.39 | 0.15 | −0.11 | −0.043 |
| Sum of contributions | +0.640 | ||||||
| Claim-check penalty | 0.000 | ||||||
| Total, as published | 0.640 | ||||||
Spread is the highest minus the lowest judge answer. marks a spread above 0.40: the judges disagree, and the story is marked contested.
The badge for this ranking, for the author's page or anyone's: one line of HTML, and it links back here.
<a href="https://rubric.hrih.si/editions/2026-10-25/20/"><img src="https://rubric.hrih.si/badge/2026-10-25/20.svg" alt="Ranked #20 on Rubric, 25 Oct 2026" width="245" height="28"></a>Claim check
Claim check: 1 matches source · 5 no source given · 2 couldn’t check. Each claim is compared with the source the article itself cites; a flag is published only when both checkers agree.
No source givenNumber
The author's custom GPU solver solved Anubis difficulty-6 challenges in about 5 milliseconds on a MacBook Pro.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “It was able to solve these challenges in about 5 milliseconds (at challenge level 6”
The source says No source to compare with.
Couldn’t checkNumber
Solving the same challenge in Chrome on the same MacBook Pro took about 22 seconds on average.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “it took around 22 seconds to solve the same challenge difficulty on the same laptop in Chrome”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: youtube.com/watch
No source givenNumber
The author's solver is roughly 30,000x faster than a modern iPhone at solving Anubis challenges.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “My solver is roughly 30,000x faster than a modern iPhone”
The source says No source to compare with.
Matches sourceNumber
Meta described two clusters containing 24,576 H100 GPUs each in 2024.
The cited source says the same thing.
The article says “Meta, for example, described two clusters containing 24,576 H100 GPUs each back in 2024”
The source says “Today, we’re sharing details on two versions of our 24,576-GPU data center scale cluster at Meta”
Source cited by the article: engineering.fb.com/2024/03/12/data-center-engineering/building-metas-genai-infrastructure
Couldn’t checkVersion
Anubis's bundled policy uses difficulty 2 and 4 in various tiers, with difficulty 6 in its highest configured tier, so 6 is not the default for every visitor.
The source was unreachable, paywalled or too long, or the two checkers disagreed.
The article says “The bundled policy uses different responses depending on its suspicion score, including difficulty 2 and 4, with 6 in its highest configured tier”
The source says No passage could be compared.
Source cited by the article: github.com/TecharoHQ/anubis/blob/v1.28.2/data/botPolicies.yaml
No source givenBenchmark result
Hashcat with a modified kernel on the Apple M5 Max's 40-core GPU reported about 382–393 million hashes per second.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “that version reported about 382–393 million hashes per second”
The source says No source to compare with.
No source givenNumber
Of 15 public Anubis-using sites sampled, fourteen returned readable challenge settings and all fourteen used SHA-256.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “I sampled 15 public websites that had publicly announced using Anubis. Fourteen returned readable challenge settings, and all fourteen used SHA-256”
The source says No source to compare with.
No source givenGeneralization
With Argon2id and HashX, the gap between native CPU and GPU solving is almost entirely gone, though native solving remains faster than Chrome.
The article gives no link or citation for it.
The article says “the difference between Native CPU and GPU is almost entirely gone”
The source says No source to compare with.
Also covered by
No other coverage was clustered with this story.
Elsewhere
Elsewhere: HN 5 pts, not on front page
Recorded for context only, checked 25 Oct 2026, 05:46 UTC. It played no part in the ranking.