Cryptanalysis of AES and SHA-2: how far we are from compromising worldwide encryption

Modern cryptanalysis typically deal with basic cryptographic primitives where a vulnerability might imply an unavoidable threat to a full cryptosystem. The cipher AES and the hash family SHA-2 are used in numerous theoretical constructions and applications. They were designed over 10 years ago and survived intensive cryptanalytic efforts. Despite hundreds of papers written on the subject, no weakness was discovered in either design. Only recently it was announced that the secret key of the AES cipher can be found faster than by exhaustive search by a small but noticeable factor. At about the same time the SHA-2 shortened by as little as 25 was found to be not a one-way function.