                        PKE - PUBLIC KEY ENCRYPTION

     This paper heavily relies on Bruce Schneier's excellent
     book, Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms and
     Source Code in C, cited at the end of the text.

                             Table of Contents

          Introduction
          RSA Encryption
          A Quick Runthrough
          Modular Arithmetic
          The Extended Euclid's Algorithm
          Fermat's Little Theorem
          Euler's Totient Function
          The Inner Workings


                               INTRODUCTION
     
     The first Public Key Encryption algorithm was invented by
Whitfield Diffie and Martin Hellman at Stanford University.  They
and independently Ralph Merkle invented the concept in 1976.  The
advantage of PKE is that it avoids the problem of securely
transmitting secret keys.  

     PKE relies on the difficulty of factoring a very large
number.  The public and private keys are functions of a pair of
large prime numbers, 100 to 300 digits.  Recovering the plaintext
from the keys and the ciphertext is equivalent to factoring the
product of two primes, 

          n = p * q

or by repeated encryption, which will be explained later, but
mandates that the product (p - 1) * (q - 1) should have no small
factors.
     
     Using a 512 bit value for n gives a number of 154 digits; a
1028 bit value for n gives a number of 308 digits.  A 40 digit
number can today be factored in a matter of hours, but it takes a
tenfold increase in computing power to factor a number with each
increase of 10 digits.  A 664 bit number of 200 digits takes
10^23 operations to factor (an operation is a complex iteration
of the factoring algorithm, not a simple microcomputer
operation).  Assuming a super computer can perform a million
operations per second, and that a network of a million such
computers is assigned the task, it will take 3700 years to factor
the 200 digit number.  If n is a 1024 bit number (like the
product of two primes of 512 bits each) that same array of
computers will take 10^10 years to factor the 308 digit number,
and the universe has not yet existed that long.  


                              RSA ENCRYPTION

     The RSA algorithm is named after its three inventors, Ron
Rivest, Adi Shamir, and Leonard Adleman, who first introduced the
algorithm in 1978.  It is patented.

The Public Key, used to encrypt a message intended for its owner,
consists of two numbers, n and e.

          n - the product of two primes, p and q 
              (p and q must remain secret)                  
                                                                 
          e - a number chosen at random which is relatively prime
              to (p-1) * (q-1) 
                                                       
     The Secret Key, d, used to decrypt a cyphertext and restore
a message by its owner, is one number, and we will see why it is
in this form in the section on the inner workings.  

          (d * e) (mod (p-1) * (q-1)) = 1    

or   

          d  e^-1 (mod (p-1) * (q-1))                 

To encrypt a message m and create a cyphertext c 
                                                       
          c = m^e (mod n)                                   
                                                       
To decrypt a cyphertext c and restore the message m 

          m = c^d (mod n)                                   
     

                            A QUICK RUNTHROUGH

     For those already familiar with number theory, This quick
runthrough will demonstrate the mathematics of the RSA algorithm
fro those already familiar with number theory and give others an
initial overview of the procedure.  The complete mathematical
framework will be introduced from the ground up following this
quick runthrough.  

     To generate the public and private keys, choose two large
prime numbers, p and q.  Compute the product:

          n = p * q

Example:  If p = 47  and  q = 71

          n = p * q = 3337

Then randomly choose the encryption key e, such that e and 
(p-1) * (q-1) are relatively prime (have no factors in common). 
Finally, use the extended Euclid's algorithm or Euler's totient
function to compute the decryption key d by the inverse modululo
function, such that

          d  e^-1 (mod (p - 1) * (q - 1))

and this equation is equivalent to

          d * e = (p -1) * (q - 1) * k + 1

Example:  If e is chosen to be 79

          79 * d = 3220 * k + 1

          d  79^-1 (mod (71 - 1) * (47 - 1)) 

          d  79^-1 mod 3220 = 1019

     Note that d and e are relatively prime.  The two primes p
and q are no longer needed.  They can be discarded, but should
never be revealed.

     To encrypt a message m, first divide it into numerical
blocks such that each block is smaller than n and therefore has a
unique representation modulo n.  Choose With binary data, choose
the largest power of 2 less than n.  The encrypted message c will
be made up of similarly sized message blocks of about the same
length:

          c = m^e mod n

Example: Let's say the message m is 6882326879666683.  First
break it into blocks.  n is 3337, a four digit number, so three
digit blocks will work nicely in this case.  The first block is
encrypted as: 

          c = 688^79 mod 3337 = 1570

To decrypt a message, take each encrypted block c and compute:

          m = c^d mod n

Example: Decrypting the first block requires performing the same
exponentiation using the decryption key of 1019.

          m = 1570^1019 mod 3337 = 688 

Of course, your calculator can't deal with a number whose
exponent is 1019, but we will see how the exponent can be
partitioned and dealt with in smaller bites.


                            MODULAR ARITHMETIC

     If r equals the remainder of d divided by n, modular
arithmetic expresses this as

          d mod n = r              or   d  r mod n

The first equation is read, "d mod (or modulo) n equals r," and
the second is read, "d is congruent to r mod (or modulo) n." 

Example:  1026 mod 7 = 4           or   1026  4 mod 7

These equations are equivalent to 

          1026 / 7 = 146 + 4

     If you depart by plane at 7:00pm and arrive at your
destination 9 hours later, what time does your watch say before
setting it to your new time zone?

          (7 + 9) mod 12 = 4  Your watch says 4:00am.

     Modular arithmetic can be added, subtracted, multiplied and
exponentiated, the equivalent of repeated multiplication.  The
ability to manipulate the exponents helps when dealing with the
large exponents we encounter in PKE.  There is an example in the
secton on the inner workings.

          (x + y) mod n = ((x mod n) + (y mod n)) mod n

          (x - y) mod n = ((x mod n) - (y mod n)) mod n

          (x * y) mod n = ((x mod n) * (y mod n)) mod n

          x^3y mod n = ((x^y mod n) * (x^2y mod n)) mod n
     
One cannot divide congruences in all cases, 

          16  6 mod 10 is not equal to  8  3 mod 10.
 
     Any pair of relatively prime integers (having no factors in
common) has the remarkable property that multiples of each can
always be found such that their difference is unity.  Stated
another way, there always exists some multiple of an integer, n,
which leave a remainder of one when divided by another integer
prime to it, and the multiplier of n is always a smaller number
than the divisor of the product.  For 15 and 11, there exists two
integers x and y, such that 

          (15 * x) - (11 * y) = 1  or   15 * x = 11 * y + 1

This property brings us to the inverse modulo function.

                      THE EXTENDED EUCLID'S ALGORITHM  

     The inverse modulo function is equivalent to finding a
number d, such that 

          (y * x) mod n = 1        or   y * x  1 mod n

Example:  (15 * d) mod 11 = 1      or   15 * d  1 mod 11

The inverse of a number is that number which multiplied by the
original number gives one as the product.  The inverse modulo
function is that number which multiplied by the original number
gives one as the remainder.  In the above example, what value of
d give a remainder of one?  The above equations are usually
written in the following form,   

          x  y^-1 mod n

which asks, "What value of x multiplied by the value of y will
give a remainder of one?"

These equations are the equivalent to the last equation in the
section above on modular arithmetic, 

          15 * x = 11 * y + 1

which in this form is called a Diophantine equation, an equation
with integer coefficients for which integer solutions are sought. 

     Sometimes there is no solution.  For example, the inverse of
5, modulo 14, is 3: 

          5 * 3 = 15  1 mod 14  

On the other hand, 2 has no inverse modulo 14.

I.   If y and n are relatively prime, then x = y^-1 mod n has a
unique solution.  This is critical to the success of the RSA
algorithm.

II.  If y and n are not relatively prime, then x = y^-1 mod n 
     has no solution.  

III. If n is a prime number, then every number from 1 to n-1
     is relatively prime to n and has exactly one inverse in
     that range. 

     We shall use the extended Euclidean algorithm can find d,
the secret key in the RSA algorithm.  The extended algorithm is
just a variation Euclid's algorithm, which is the method of
finding the greatest common divisor of two numbers.  Remembering
that in the RSA algorithm the secret key must be 

          d  e^-1 (mod (p-1) * (q-1)) 

we will again let e = 79, p = 71, and q = 47, as above.  The
algorithm proceeds until the remainder equals 0.  

          d  79^-1 mod 3220

In its Diophantine form,

          79 * d = 3220 * k + 1

Solving for d, find an integer y (it will equal unity) and a
remainder:

          d = 40 * y + (60 * k + 1) / 79

For d to be an integer, 60 * k + 1 must be a multiple of 79:

          60 * k + 1 = 79 * a

Now solving for k:

          k = a + (19 * a - 1) / 60 

For k to be an integer, 19 * a - 1 must be a multiple of 60:

          19 * a - 1 = 60 * b

Now solving for a:

          a = 3 * b + (3 * b + 1) / 19

For a to be an integer, (3 * b + 1) must be a multiple of 19:

          3 * b + 1 = 19 * c

Now solving for b:

          b = 6 * c + (c - 1) / 3 

And clearly c can equal 1, making the remainder equal to 0.

          b = 6 * 1 + (1 - 1) / 3 = 6  

Working backwards by substitution, if c = 1, then b = 6, a = 19,
k = 25, d = 1019.


                          FERMAT'S LITTLE THEOREM

     We note that 2^7 - 2 = 126, and 126 is divisible by 7.  In
fact, this is true for any number x which is not divisible by its
exponent p, and the exponent p is a prime number.
  
     In general terms, for x^p - x = y, y is divisible by p.  

Factoring, 

          x^p - x = x * (x^(p-1) - 1)  

The entire expression is divisible by p, but x is not divisible
by p, so x^(p-1) - 1 must be divisible by p.  

This brings us to Fermat's Theorem, written in its usual form: 

     If x is any integer not divisible by the prime p, 
     then x^(p-1) - 1 is divisible by p. 

          x^(p-1)  1 mod p

     It may be called a little theorem, but it allows us to know
instantly that x^(367-1) - 1 is divisible by 367, as long as 367
is prime, even though when x is a number as small as 2 it would
have over one-hundred decimal places.


                         EULER'S TOTIENT FUNCTION

     The Euler totient function, also called the Euler phi
function and written as

if gcd(x,n) = 1, then

          x^phi(n) mod n = 1       or   x^phi(n)  1 mod n

          phi(n), is the number of positive integers less than n
that are relatively prime to n.  For example, the reduced set of
residues mod 12 is {1,5,7,11}.  Unlike Fermat's little theorem, n
does not have to be prime.  For this reason, Euler's Totient
Function is referred to as Euler's generalization of Fermat's
little theorem.  

     Euler's totient function is multiplicative.  If 

          phi(12) = 4 and phi(10) = 4, 

then 

          phi(12 * 10) = 4 * 4 = 16

     If n is prime, then phi(n) = n - 1, since all numbers less
than a prime are not divisors of a prime.  Euler's function is
multiplicative, so if n = p * q, where p and q are prime, then
phi(n) = (p - 1) * (q - 1).  This will allow d to open c, as we
will see in the section on the inner workings.  

Now taking the inverse of Euler's totient function,

          y  x^phi(n)-1 mod n

and putting this equation into the form for e and d in the RSA
algorithm, 

          d  e^phi(p-1)*(q-1)-1 (mod (p - 1) * (q - 1))

Remember that this is equivalent to the definition of the private
key

          d  e^-1 (mod (p - 1) * (q - 1))

and we will later use the fact that this is in turn equivalent to
the Diophantine equation we have already seen to determine d * e,
that is

          d * e = (p - 1) * (q - 1) * k + 1

Choosing two primes, p and q, and choosing e at random and
relatively prime to (p - 1) * (q - 1), we can now easily find d.  

Setting p = 2, q = 17, e = 5

          d  e^phi(n)-1 (mod (p - 1) * (q - 1))

          d  5^phi(2-1)*(17-1)-1 (mod (2 - 1) * (17 - 1)

          d  5^phi(16)-1 mod 16

There are 8 elements relatively prime to 16: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11,
13, 15, therefore phi(16) = 8.

          d  5^8-1 mod 16  5^7 mod 16  78125 mod 16 = 13  

     We have now used both the extended Euclid's algorithm and
Euler's totient function to calculate inverses to solve for d.
Euclid's algorithm is generally faster for calculating large
inverses.  


                            THE INNER WORKINGS

     Why does d decrypt c?  Since

          c^d mod n = (m^e)^d mod n = m^e*d mod n 

and remembering the Diophantine equation above for e * d, our
exponent in m^e*d becomes

          m^(p-1)*(q-1)*k+1 mod n

and since n = p * q, and remembering that Euler's totient theorem
is multiplicative, 
          
          phi(n) = phi(p * q) = (p - 1) * (q - 1)

Therefore, 

          c^d mod n = m^phi(n)*k+1 mod n

and according to Euler, 

          m^phi(n) mod n = 1

and of course, m^1 = m.  Therefore

          c^d mod n = (1^k * m)   CHECK!

Example:  If our message m = 6, and e = 5, d = 13, p = 2, q = 17,

          c = m^e mod n = 6^5 mod 34 = 7776 mod 34 = 24

Now if cyphertext c = 24, to restore the original message we take

          c^d mod n = 24^13 mod 34 

          = ((24^3 mod 34) * (24^5 mod 34) * (24^5 mod 34) mod 34 

          = (20 * 28 * 28) mod 34 = 15680 mod 34 = 6   CHECK!  



1. Albert H. Beiler, Recreations in the Theory of Numbers, (New
York, Dover Publications, Inc., 1966) ISBN 486-21096-0 

2. LeVeque, William Judson, Elementary Theory of Numbers,
(Reading, MA, Addison-Wesley, 1962), ISBN 0-486-66348-5 

3. Bruce Schneier, Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Algorithms,
and Source Code in C, (New York, John Wiley and Sons, Inc.,
1994), ISBN 0-471-59756-2 (paper)

4. M. R. Schroeder, Number Theory in Science and Communication,
(New York, Springer-Verlag, 1984, 1986) ISBN 0-387-12164-1

Written by Sid R. Bass 
CompuServe 76500,1116, Internet 76500,1116@compuserve.com