Score:1

Specific case of RSA where cipher text equals plain text

ph flag

How did they arrive at the conclusion that there are 4 messages where plain text equals cipher text from "It is easy to show that in RSA, when e = 3 there are 4 messages m for which the ciphertext is equal to the plaintext and gcd(m, n) = 1. Two of these messages are 1 and −1."? Also, how to find the other 2 messages when there is no clue about n,p,q?

us flag
"How did they arrive at the conclusion" --> Who is "they"? The other messages depend on n,p,q, so you have no chance of finding them without knowing n,p,q.
ar flag
Related, almost duplicate question: [How many points in RSA, such that $m^e = m \bmod n$](https://crypto.stackexchange.com/questions/89803/how-many-points-in-rsa-such-that-me-m-bmod-n)
Score:2
my flag

It is easy to show that in RSA, when e = 3 there are 4 messages m for which the ciphertext is equal to the plaintext and gcd(m, n) = 1

Well, if $m^3 = m \pmod n$ (and assuming $n$ is a conventional RSA modulus, that is, it is $n = pq$, for $p, q$ distinct odd primes), this is equivalent to both of the below holding simultaneously:

$$m^3 = m \pmod p$$ $$m^3 = m \pmod q$$

If $p, q$ are prime, these are cubic equations in fields; such cubic equations have (at most) 3 solutions. A moment's reflection (or a bit of algebra) yields the solutions $m = 0, 1, -1$ (with the later being equivalent to $p-1, q-1$) - since there are at most 3 solutions, this must be all of them.

Now, $m=0$ (in either case) is inconsistent with $\gcd(m, n)=1$, hence we can discard those solutions; this yields the solutions $m = 1, -1 \pmod p$ and $m = 1, -1 \bmod q$. By the Chinese Remainder Theorem (and the fact that $p, q$ are relatively prime), all four possible combinations correspond to a single $m$ in the range $(0, n-1)$.

The combination $m = 1 \pmod p$ and $m = 1 \pmod q$ yields the value $m = 1$; similarly the combination $m = -1 \pmod p$ and $m = -1 \pmod q$ yields the value $m = n-1$ (the quote gives this as $-1$, however that's not in the range, and modular cubing will never return the value -1); these are the two trivial solutions.

The other two combinations, both $m = 1 \bmod p$ and $m = -1 \pmod q$, and $m = -1 \bmod p$ and $m = 1 \pmod q$ are the nontrivial solutions.

This logic shows there are no other possibilities.

Also, how to find the other 2 messages when there is no clue about n,p,q?

Even if you were given the value of $n$, knowing one of the two nontrivial values immediately leads to a factorization of $n$, for example, by computing $\gcd(m-1, n)$, hence there is no easy way (without knowing the factorizatoin apriori).

ph flag
thank you so much for the detailed explanation. Just one question, what do you mean by a non-trivial solution? Does it mean the solution does not exist?
mangohost

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