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From: markv@pixar.com (Mark VandeWettering)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.misc,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.networking,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: need secure OS to entrust millions to
Date: 15 May 1996 22:03:11 GMT
Organization: pixar
Lines: 27
Message-ID: <4ndkav$f2@pixar.com>
References: <4gi6t6$3h9@lace.colorado.edu> <4h7rdd$qeu@park.uvsc.edu> <GUTSCHK.96Mar3112617corpus@uni-muenster.de> <GHSU.96Mar7051927@unstable.nswc.navy.mil>
NNTP-Posting-Host: tick.pixar.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.misc:103946 comp.os.linux.development.system:23921 comp.os.linux.networking:38572 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3752 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3619 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:19441
In article <GHSU.96Mar7051927@unstable.nswc.navy.mil>,
Guan-Hsong Hsu <ghsu@relay.nswc.navy.mil> wrote:
>> The questions whether public key encryption is secure, is not related
>> to it being public. The security of RSA is based on the assumption
>> that there is no good algorithm for factorizing large prime
>> numbers. .........
>Perhaps you meant "no good algorithm to determine if a large number is
>prime" or "no good algorithm to factorize an arbitrary large number by
>primes"? In either case, there are some standard algorithms that
>seems to work fine. So perhaps you meant something else, didn't you?
Umm, actually there are some very good probabalistic primality tests
which form the basis for key generation. There are no "good" algorithms for
determining the prime factors of a very large number however. RSA exploits
this for security. You can easily find two several hundred digit primes
and multiply them together to form the basis of your public key. To convert
this number back into the original prime factors is quite difficult.
For a book on all this, try Applied Cryptography by Bruce Schnier.
Mark
--
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