Article View: sci.crypt
Article #3331Re: Security of RSA and factoring
From: simsong
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1987 17:03
Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1987 17:03
20 lines
1616 bytes
1616 bytes
In article <163@iris.randvax.UUCP> jim@iris.UUCP (Jim Gillogly) writes: ... >The security of an RSA scheme also depends on how the "secret" primes were >selected. The company supplying RSA encryption would certainly offer a >way to select primes, since most people won't be able to do it themselves. >For example, they might say "type a password that you select totally at >random, such as your wife's first name or your favorite rock group" and >then replicate that totally random password to get two different 100-digit >odd numbers. From there count by twos, testing each number for primality >(easy), and stop when you have your two totally secret 100-digit primes. WAIT! It is not "easy" to test a 100-digit number for priamity. How do you do that? To tell if a number is prime or not, you factor it. Simson L. Garfinkel MIT Media Lab -- Simson L. Garfinkel is a freelance student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Technical Details
Message-ID:
<615@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU>Path:
arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!mit-amt!simsongReferences:
<9041@duke.duke.UUCP> <4205@columbia.UUCP> <9054@duke.duke.UUCP> <163@iris.randvax.UUCP> <11496@lanl.ARPA>Show Full Headers
Complete Article Headers
Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: arc1-ca.pugleaf.net!utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!mit-eddie!mit-amt!simsong From: simsong@mit-amt.UUCP Newsgroups: sci.crypt Subject: Re: Security of RSA and factoring Message-ID: <615@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> Date: Sat, 17-Jan-87 12:03:27 EST Article-I.D.: mit-amt.615 Posted: Sat Jan 17 12:03:27 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 17-Jan-87 18:52:22 EST References: <9041@duke.duke.UUCP> <4205@columbia.UUCP> <9054@duke.duke.UUCP> <163@iris.randvax.UUCP> <11496@lanl.ARPA> Reply-To: simsong@media-lab.MEDIA.MIT.EDU (Simson L. Garfinkel) Organization: MIT Media Lab, Cambridge MA Lines: 20 Summary: question