Language:   Search:   Contact
Zentralblatt MATH has released its new interface!
For an improved author identification, see the new author database of ZBMATH.

Query:
Fill in the form and click »Search«...
Format:
Display: entries per page entries
Zbl 0368.94005
Rivest, R.L.; Shamir, A.; Adleman, L.
A method for obtaining digital signatures and public-key cryptosystems.
(English)
[J] Commun. ACM 21, 120-126 (1978). ISSN 0001-0782

Summary: An encryption method is presented with the novel property that publicly revealing an encryption key does not thereby reveal the corresponding decryption key. This has two important consequences: (1) Couriers or other secure means are not needed to transmit keys, since a message can be enciphered using an encryption key publicly revealed by the intended recipient. Only he can decipher the message, since only he knows the corresponding decryption key. (2) A message can be signed'' using a privately held decryption key. Anyone can verify this signature using the corresponding publicly revealed encryption key. Signatures cannot be forged, and a signer cannot later deny the validity of his signature. This has obvious applications in electronic mail'' and electronic funds transfer'' systems. A message is encrypted by representing it as a number $M$, raising $M$ to a publicly specified power $e$, and then taking the remainder when the result is divided by the publicly specified product, $n$, of two large secret primer numbers $p$ and $q$. Decryption is similar; only a different, secret, power $d$ is used, where $e * d \equiv 1\pmod {(p - 1) * (q - 1)}.$ The security of the system rests in part on the difficulty of factoring the published divisor, $n$.\par (revised entry 2009)

Display scanned Zentralblatt-MATH page with this review.
MSC 2000:
*94A60 Cryptography
94A62 Authentication and secret sharing
68P25 Data encryption

Keywords: authentication; cryptography; digital signatures; electronic mail; factorization; message-passing; prime number; privacy; public-key cryptosystems; security

Highlights
Master Server