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1994-06-17 - Re: Prime magnitude and keys…a ?

Header Data

From: Linn Stanton <lstanton@sten.lehman.com>
To: Jim choate <ravage@bga.com>
Message Hash: cec615a223ba5d8cd68ac31d0385fc7869e534d59bcdbad9c832b05ec6b75867
Message ID: <9406171900.AA20063@sten.lehman.com>
Reply To: <199406171835.NAA09573@zoom.bga.com>
UTC Datetime: 1994-06-17 18:59:43 UTC
Raw Date: Fri, 17 Jun 94 11:59:43 PDT

Raw message

From: Linn Stanton <lstanton@sten.lehman.com>
Date: Fri, 17 Jun 94 11:59:43 PDT
To: Jim choate <ravage@bga.com>
Subject: Re: Prime magnitude and keys...a ?
In-Reply-To: <199406171835.NAA09573@zoom.bga.com>
Message-ID: <9406171900.AA20063@sten.lehman.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


In message <199406171835.NAA09573@zoom.bga.com>you write:
  > I am *NOT* talking about factoring anything. Perhaps this is why you 
  > are having a problem understanding what I am asking. I don't care what
  > the original key is, simply am I above it or below it. I don't see this
  > as a 1 to 1 with factoring large digit numbers.

Lets try a game:

I'm thinking of a number, lets call it my private factor.

I tell you that it is less than some other number, which we'll call my
public key.

For any number you choose, I'll tell you whether your choice is above or
below my private factor.

How long will it take you to guess my factor?

Lets try. my public key is 24.

Is the factor above 10? No.
Is the factor above 5? Yes.
Is the factor above 7? No.
Is it 6? Yes.

And look: 24 / 6 = 4 ! You guessed my private key, and you happen to have factored
my public key at the same time! Wow!

You may not think that you are talking about factoring, but factoring is a
subset of what you are discussing.

Thread