# AES

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/aes/

6 people recommended AES in Hacker News comments, 1 had mixed feelings and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 12 months, in 6 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Widely used standard cipher with 128-bit blocks and keys, recommended for random output and general encryption. Critics say it is hard to implement securely.

Summary written by Claude from 9 comments.

## Why people recommend it

- Trusted standard for general encryption (3 comments in the sample): "AES is also the most successful cryptography standard ever created" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040461)) "Just use AES and other conventional encryption algorithms." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46419770)) "You can keep using those." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47907967))
- Good for uniform random numbers (2 comments in the sample): "When you want truly uniform random numbers, then encrypting with AES-128, then truncating, is best." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47054060)) "It should be faster than PCG, and higher quality." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49312633))

## What people warn about

- S-box design considered outdated (1 comment in the sample): "nobody would put something like a S-Box in a cipher created today." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46041440))

## What people recommend instead

- [ML-KEM](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ml-kem/): 7 recommend, 5 mixed, 8 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "AES", https://hackerapproved.com/p/aes/ (6 recommend, 1 mixed, 2 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.