[HN Gopher] "This destroys the RSA cryptosystem"
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       "This destroys the RSA cryptosystem"
        
       Author : renaudg
       Score  : 109 points
       Date   : 2021-03-02 22:29 UTC (31 minutes ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (eprint.iacr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (eprint.iacr.org)
        
       | jeofken wrote:
       | Would someone competent in cryptography please explain this to a
       | "regular" programmer?
        
         | lquist wrote:
         | Yes and if it is feasible given current computer architectures
         | or requires significant advances in quantum
         | algorithms/computers?
        
         | pkulak wrote:
         | Yeah, if this really is fast prime factoring, we're all in a
         | lot of trouble.
        
           | toomuchtodo wrote:
           | "No more secrets"
        
             | immigrantsheep wrote:
             | Setec Astronomy
        
               | LinuxBender wrote:
               | Cocktail party at the lake
        
           | smolder wrote:
           | If that's the case it's funny to think... NSA could have sat
           | on this for years. Though that would be a really hard secret
           | to keep.
        
             | xxpor wrote:
             | I'd always figured they'd have a (useful) quantum computer
             | sitting in the basement of Ft. Meade at some point, and
             | it's existence would be Top Secret with whatever codeword
             | means "if this leaks, or we think it'll leak, we just
             | assassinate you"
        
       | ncann wrote:
       | Obviously this went way over my head, but what is the claimed
       | time complexity here?
        
         | ramboldio wrote:
         | "This proves the polynomial time bound."
        
           | ncann wrote:
           | I would be very skeptical if there is indeed a poly time
           | algorithm for integer factorization. If that's actually what
           | the paper claims then it's a very big claim.
        
       | azornathogron wrote:
       | The PDF has a slightly different abstract and is dated "work in
       | progress 31.10.2019". I wonder if there is a more recent version
       | available somewhere.
        
       | terramex wrote:
       | archive.is link: https://archive.is/BC1UQ
        
         | carlosfvp wrote:
         | I did not found the word "This destroyes the RSA cryptosystem"
         | in the real PDF https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/232.pdf Is this
         | fake news?
        
           | sodality2 wrote:
           | >This last sentence of the abstract, "This destroyes the RSA
           | cryptosystem", does not appear on the abstract of the actual
           | PDF (which also appear to be dated).
           | 
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26322289
        
           | celticninja wrote:
           | It appears on the linked page only, it is someone's
           | assessment of the result. Whether that person is qualified to
           | make that assessment is anyone's guess
        
       | marktangotango wrote:
       | Well, that's certainly provacative, can the title be updated to
       | the title of the paper and year (2019)?
       | 
       | "Factoring Integers by CVP and SVP Algorithms"
        
         | OJFord wrote:
         | It is a direct quote from the end of the abstract. The paper
         | could hardly be titled that way. It is editorialising and thus
         | against the guidelines.. but it's reasonable IMO.
        
           | indiv0 wrote:
           | <pedant> not a direct quote since the quote in the paper has
           | a typo: "destroyes"
        
             | detaro wrote:
             | <pedant> that sentence is not in the paper, only on the
             | linked page
             | 
             | Also missing the dash in his name, and apparently title
             | from somewhere else?
             | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26322254)
             | 
             | seems somewhat fishy, I'll wait what experts say in the
             | next few days...
        
             | ttul wrote:
             | That's just the Chaucerian spelling.
        
       | gnulinux wrote:
       | Can someone please correct me? We don't know polynomial CVP/SVP
       | algorithms correct? In fact, isn't SVP an NP-Hard problem? Why
       | would this "destroy" RSA?
        
       | randtrain34 wrote:
       | They only tested with numbers size of ~2^800, which is around 240
       | digits, but I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) there exists
       | usages of RSA with over 600 digits, so it'll still take a
       | massively long amount of time to factor those numbers...
        
         | munchbunny wrote:
         | Typical key lengths for RSA these days are 2048 and 4096 bits.
         | 
         | I don't know what that means for this paper, just happened to
         | have those two key lengths off the top of my head.
        
           | pkulak wrote:
           | So, 616 and 1233 digits, respectively.
        
           | ChuckMcM wrote:
           | 2048 bits ~ 617 decimal digits, 4096 bits ~ 1234 digits.
        
       | Centigonal wrote:
       | The author of this paper is Claus P. Schnorr, of Schnorr
       | signature fame.
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claus_P._Schnorr
       | 
       | The paper has the same title as a 2017 draft paper of his. The
       | "This destroyes the RSA cryptosystem" quote is not in the linked
       | paper abstract. This seems fishy.
        
         | detaro wrote:
         | He also apparently misspelled his own name. It's "Claus-Peter",
         | not "Claus Peter". agreed, seems odd.
        
       | aliljet wrote:
       | I'm out of my depth. Disclaimer applied, I genuinely wonder how
       | fast this "fast factoring" method is in this case?
        
       | elmo2you wrote:
       | This last sentence of the abstract, "This destroyes the RSA
       | cryptosystem", does not appear on the abstract of the actual PDF
       | (which also appears to be dated).
       | 
       | How does it destroy RSA? Under what conditions? That claim sounds
       | rather broad and definitely bold, to say the least.
        
         | gpm wrote:
         | > work in progress 31.10.2019
         | 
         | ^ Date on the pdf
        
       | BluSyn wrote:
       | There's a difference between cryptography broken in "theory" and
       | broken in "practice". Couldn't find anything relevant to that
       | point in the paper. Who here is qualified to make that
       | assessment?
        
       | olliej wrote:
       | Given the claims I would have wanted the paper to include
       | factoring for some of the known rsa public keys to demonstrate
       | feasible time.
        
       | karaterobot wrote:
       | The linked page links to the full article as a PDF, though I'll
       | be honest and say it still doesn't help me fully understand the
       | ramifications of that statement.
       | 
       | https://eprint.iacr.org/2021/232.pdf
        
       | muricula wrote:
       | The website is being hugged to death, but archive.org has scraped
       | the PDF:
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20210302215033/https://eprint.ia...
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-02 23:00 UTC)