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If you happen happen to have a message $m ∈ Z_n \backslash Z^*_n$, RSA works but not secure. How likely is it going to happen? $|n|=1024$ bits $|p| = 512$ bits $|q| = 512$ bits.

mikeazo
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user12708
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1 Answers1

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We know that $|\mathbb{Z}_n| = p\cdot q$ and that $|\mathbb{Z}_n^*| = (p-1)(q-1)$.

So $|\mathbb{Z}_n \backslash \mathbb{Z}^*_n| = (pq) - (p-1)(q-1) = pq - pq + p + q - 1 = p + q -1$. That number is approximately $2^{513}$ given your example prime sizes.

So, out of approximately $2^{1024}$ choices for messages $m$, quite a few are bad. That said, finding one of those is equivalent to factoring. The fastest known method for finding one of these bad messages is to first factor the modulus. Then you can trivially find one.

With just random guessing, each message is equally likely, so has a probability of $\frac{1}{2^{1024}}$, so the probability of finding one of these bad messages is $\frac{2^{513}}{2^{1024}} = \frac{1}{2^{511}}$.

mikeazo
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