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From: paulsc@tekecs.UUCP (Paul Scherf)
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.math
Subject: Re: Cracking public - key encryption schemes such as RSA
Message-ID: <1934@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Aug-83 12:11:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.1934
Posted: Fri Aug 26 12:11:35 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 27-Aug-83 23:33:21 EDT
References: hou5e.737
Lines: 16

I don't know if this is the same thing you are talking about,
but last Fall I heard about a scheme that seemed to cause a big
to-do at the time. (Sorry, I don't have a reference. The scheme
was told to me by someone who heard it from someone who received
a phonecall from the originator.) The scheme as told to me was a
way to figure out the (public) modulus given that you could get
a bunch of "special" messages signed. (I guess it is supposed to
be easy to get someone who signs lots of stuff to go for a
"here, sign this". I guess then it wouldn't be too hard to get a
bunch of these.) Before you hear the details (assuming I heard
them right) it sounds like someone broke RSA, but afterward you
realize someone figured out how to compute something that was
already public information anyway.

Paul Scherf, Tektronix, Wilsonville, Oregon, USA
decvax!tektronix!tekecs!paulsc