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Article #2

Prime generation, a possible weakness in PGP?

#2
From: Ari Huttunen
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 15:45
18 lines
1257 bytes
I am concerned about the primeness of the prime numbers
that PGP generates. This is how they are done:
	- first throw away numbers that are divisible
	  by small primes
	- then use Fermat's theorem 4 times
	  (Fermat's theorem:  if  b**(n-1) != 1 (mod n), then
	  'n' cannot be a prime. This requires that 'b' and 'n'
	  are relatively prime.)

My concern is the number of rounds of the Fermat test. It's only 4.
I would not trust this level of primeness. Also, the resulting
number might be a Carmichael number. (So it would pass any number
of such tests.) 
--
...............................................................................
Ari Huttunen   			       Any similarity to other alien life forms
				          is purely coincidental.
					      <Alien 3 misquote>
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Newsgroups: alt.security.pgp,sci.crypt
Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!sparky!uunet!mcsun!news.funet.fi!ajk.tele.fi!funic!news.cs.hut.fi!cs.hut.fi!Ari.Huttunen
From: Ari.Huttunen@hut.fi (Ari Huttunen)
Subject: Prime generation, a possible weakness in PGP?
Message-ID: <ARI.HUTTUNEN.92Sep27174550@laphroaig.cs.hut.fi>
Lines: 18
Sender: usenet@cs.hut.fi (Uutis Ankka)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Distribution: alt
Date: Sun, 27 Sep 1992 15:45:52 GMT