[90474] in Cypherpunks
Re: Factor a 2048 bit number
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Peter trei)
Wed Nov 19 10:57:56 1997
From: "Peter trei" <ptrei@hotmail.com>
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Cc: ptrei@hotmail.com
Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 07:15:26 PST
Reply-To: "Peter trei" <ptrei@hotmail.com>
>Someone styling themselves as "Monty Cantsin" writes:
>This number is the product of two large primes:
>[big number deleted]
>Yet, I believe that an enterprising individual will be able to factor
>it.
>Monty Cantsin
If your belief has any basis in reality, I'd like to hear what it
is. Schneier gives estimates for factoring 2048 bit numbers using
both the General Number Field Sieve and the Special Number Field
Sieve. SNFS is by far the fastest, and with that it would take
4*10^14 MIPS-years.
All of the computer power expended in the RSA Symmetric Key
Challenges (DES, RC5-56, etc) up to this point amount to,
generously, 10^7 MIPS-years. This is only one forty-millionth
of power needed.
It's been said that 'Those who will not do arithmetic are doomed
to speak nonsense.' You are proving the truth of this.
RSA has a substantial prize for factoring much smaller numbers. It's
estimated, for example, that RSA-155 (about 512 bits), could be
factored in 500,000 MIPS-years.
Peter Trei
ptrei@hotmail.com
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