-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Norman Hardy writes:

Laudable Paranoia!

Was that laudable or laughable ?

In short the numbers: cipher, decipher, plain, d and e must all be relatively prime to p and q for all of this stuff to work.

In my example, p and q a primes. Which means: for all x<p x and p are relative primes for all x<q x and q are relative primes e is a prime as well, and since e<p, e and p are relative primes e is a prime as well, and since e<q, e and q are relative primes As for d, your answer is besides the point, since what I was asking is the _list of possible values for d_. You don't get to choose them. They're imposed, not free-style. If some of them are primes, well, cheers.

In practice, since p and q are very large, the probability of the cryptanalyst finding another value d that deciphers your message is about the same as him finding p or q.

I'm willing to believe you. Any general formulas giving the probability of solutions for the d's ? Maybe I'm asking the wrong question. I'll ask again. What are the properties of those d that unlock ALL messages encrypted by e What are the properties of those d that unlock a GIVEN message encrypted by e - -zap -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCUAgUBLT0L6Ck+9PttYUp1AQEIggP2IY1Y3VYQsCZlbZlafjR3L8IF8LAKq83z 8TVTs3upzQJO8GgA/8lUs08QVlfmVWAp0IieotrJzkmmgXnR6ZJyoXCFMrLji1nB z5mo6Xx4fygNIpqrDsLC273JEGrhyk/sW3RhoyTZ6ccTIk6wZV+9GAqFIVnxiOEI 2xo4kVMt/g== =0Bg/ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help@anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin@anon.penet.fi.