ForIn [[cryptography]] cryptographersjargon, a cryptographic "break" is anythingany attack faster thanin aexpectation brutethan [[Brute-force attack|brute force]] – i.e., performing one trial decryption for each possible key. InFor many casescryptographic systems, even though theybreaks are the best known methods, theybut are still practically infeasible with current technology. One example is the best attack known against 128-bit [[Advanced Encryption Standard|AES]], which takes only <math>2^{126}</math> operations.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |author=Biaoshuai Tao |title = Information Security and Privacy|volume = 9144|pages = 39–56|author2=Hongjun Wu |name-list-style=amp |date=2015|doi=10.1007/978-3-319-19962-7_3 |series = Lecture Notes in Computer Science|isbn = 978-3-319-19961-0}}</ref> Despite being impractical, theoretical breaks can sometimes provide insight into vulnerability patterns, and sometimes lead to discovery of exploitable breaks.
