SWE3002 – Information and
System Security
Module 3
MODULE –3: Public Key Crypto Systems
Number theory fundamentals
Principles of public key crypto systems
RSA algorithm
Diffie Hellman Key exchange
Public key cryptography
Public key cryptography or asymmetric cryptography is
a cryptographic system that uses pairs of keys.
Public keys which may be disseminated widely and
private keys which are known only to the owner.
In such a system, any person can encrypt a message
using the receiver’s public key, but that encrypted
message can only be decrypted with the receiver’s
private key.
RSA algorithm
RSA (Rivest Shamir Adleman) is an algorithm used to
encrypt and decrypt messages.
This algorithm was developed in 1977.
It is an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm .
This is also called public key cryptography because one
of the keys can be given to anyone.
RSA algorithm
RSA algorithm
Example
User A wants to send a number 4 to User B
Select two prime numbers p = 3, q = 11
n = p * q = 3 * 11 = 33
ø(n) = 2 * 10 = 20
Public key generation
Select a number e such that e is 1 < ø(n) and gcd(e,
ø(n)) = 1
Let e = 13, such that gcd(13,20) = 1
The public key is {e,n} = {13,33}
Example
Private key generation
Find a number d such that 1 = 7 -1 * 6
e * d mod ø(n) = 1 = 7 – 1(13 -1*7)
d is modular multiplicative = 2 * 7 -1 * 13
inverse = 2 (20 -1*13) -1 *13
13d mod 20 = 1 = 2 * 20 -3 *13
20 = 1* 13 + 7 = -3 + 20 = 17
Private key = {17,33}
13 = 1 *7 + 6
7 = 1 * 6 + 1
Example
User A know the public key {13,33}
Important p < n ie 4 < 33
Cipher text = 413 mod 33
(43)4 * 4 mod 33
(31)4 * 4 mod 33
(-2)4 * 4 mod 33
64 mod 33 = 31
User A sends cipher text 31 to User B
Example
User B decrypt the message using private key { 17,33}
Plaintext = 31 17 mod 33
((-2) 5)3 * 22 mod 33
-((2) 5)3 * 22 mod 33
-(-1)3 * 22 mod 33
4
Exercises
Perform the encryption and decryption using RSA
algorithm for the following data
1. p = 3 q = 11 e = 7 m = 5
2. p = 5 q = 11 e = 3 m = 9
3. p = 7 q = 11 e = 17 m = 8
4. p = 11 q = 13 e = 11 m = 7
5. p = 17 q = 31 e = 7 m = 2
Exercise
In public key system using RSA, you intercept
the cipher text C = 10 sent to a user whose
public key e = 5 n = 35 What is the plain text?
Exercise
In public key system using RSA, you intercept the cipher
text C = 20 sent to a user whose public key e = 13 n = 77
What is the plain text?
Efficient encryption
However, with a very small public key, such
as e = 3, RSA becomes vulnerable to a
simple attack.
During key generation the user selects a
value of e that is relatively prime to ø (n).
Thus, if a value if e is selected first, and the
primes p and q are generated, it may turn
out that gcd(ø(n), e) /= 1.
In that case, the user must reject the p, q
values and generate a new p, q pair.
Efficient decryption
We cannot similarly choose a small constant value of d
for efficient operation.
A small value of d is vulnerable to a brute-force attack
and to other forms of cryptanalysis [WIEN90].
However, there is a way to speed up computation using
the Chinese Remainder Theorem (CRT) to compute mod
p & q separately, and then combine results to get the
desired answer.
This is approx 4 times faster than calculating “Cd mod n”
directly. Note that only the owner of the private key
details (who knows the values of p & q)
RSA Security
brute force key search - infeasible given size of
numbers
mathematical attacks - based on difficulty of
computing ø(n), by factoring modulus n
timing attacks - on running of decryption
chosen ciphertext attacks - given properties of
RSA
