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Discrete Logarithms

This document discusses discrete logarithms. It begins with prerequisites of congruence modulo and primitive roots. Congruence modulo is an equivalence relation under modular arithmetic where integers are congruent if their difference is divisible by the modulus. A primitive root of a prime number has a multiplicative order of the number minus one. The discrete logarithm of an integer with respect to a base modulo a number is the exponent that raises the base to that integer. Computing discrete logarithms is very difficult and forms the basis of cryptographic algorithms like Diffie-Hellman key exchange.

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Nihal Jayachandran

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

160 views11 pages

Discrete Logarithms

Uploaded by

Nihal Jayachandran

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DISCRETE LOGARITHMS

By Nihal Jayachandran
2K20/CO/297
PRE-REQUISITES

1. CONGRUENCE MODULO

2. PRIMITIVE ROOTS
CONGRUENCE MODULO
● Congruence is an equivalence relation operation under modular arithmetic.

● It states that if given an integer n > 1, called a modulus, two integers a and b are said to be
congruent modulo n, if n is a divisor of their difference.
So there should be an integer k such that a − b = kn.

● Can be denoted as follows:-

Reﬂexivity: a ≡ a (mod n)

Symmetry: a ≡ b (mod n) if b ≡ a (mod n) for all a, b, and n.

Transitivity: If a ≡ b (mod n) and b ≡ c (mod n), then a ≡ c (mod n)

PRIMITIVE ROOTS

● A primitive root of a prime number n is an integer g such that g(mod)n has a

multiplicative order of n-1. This is only true if g and n are relatively prime.

● That is an integer g is a primitive root of (mod n) if for every number relatively prime to n
there is an integer z such that
● Here, for every value of 1<=z<=(n-1) a distinct 𝛼 should be the resultant such that

1<=𝛼 <=(n-1)

● Multiplicative order- The smallest exponent e for which

DISCRETE LOGARITHMS
● If 𝛼 is an arbitrary integer relatively prime to n and g is a primitive root of n, then there
exists among the numbers 1, 2, ...,Φ(n), where Φ(n) is the totient function, exactly one
number z such that:-

● The number z is then called the discrete logarithm of a with respect to the base g modulo
n and can be denoted as: z = indg a (mod n) OR z = logg(𝛼).
● The reason it is called discrete logarithm is because its deﬁnition is analogous to that of
the usual logarithm.
● a ≡ g^z (mod m) is equivalent to logg(a) ≡ z (mod k), where k is the order of g modulo m.
logb(y) = x is equivalent to y = b^x.)
DISCRETE LOGARITHM PROBLEM

Question: Find the discrete logarithms of each unit modulo 11 to the base 2.

Solution: Since 2 is a primitive root modulo 11, we can write each unit as a power of
2. The simplest way to do this is, is to compute each of the values 2^0, 2^1, ... ,
2^10 modulo 11. The table of results is as follows:

Here, for example, 3 · 6 ≡ 7 (mod 11), and log2(3)+log2(6) ≡ log2(7) (mod 10), since
10 is the order of 2 modulo 11.
DISCRETE LOGARITHM PROBLEM
Question: Calculate k in the equation 3^k ≡ 13 (mod 17) in the group (Z17)*.

Solution: By doing the table similar to the last question we ﬁnd that k=4.

According to Euler’s Theorem- 3^16 ≡ 1(mod 17)

Thus, the equation has inﬁnitely many solutions of the form 4 + 16n, where

-∞<=n<∞
DISCRETE LOGARITHM PROBLEM
Question: Suppose G = (Z5641)*. Then Calculate log337 in G.

Solution: The question can be rewritten as calculate x in 34 ≡ 3^x(mod 5641)

where x is the discrete logarithm of 34 with respect to base 3 modulo 5641.

As it can be seen it is very complex to ﬁnd the discrete logarithm in this case using
the aforementioned tabular method. It is a known fact that for large prime numbers
it is in general very difﬁcult to compute discrete logarithms using any method or
algorithms that are currently available.
DISCRETE LOGARITHM APPLICATION

● Here for given g, z, and n, it is a straightforward matter to calculate 𝛼. At the worst, we

must perform x repeated multiplications, and algorithms exists already for achieving
greater efﬁciency.

● However, given 𝛼, g, and n, it is, in general, very difﬁcult to calculate z . The difﬁculty
seems to be on the same order of magnitude as that of factoring primes required for RSA.

● In fact there does not exist a polynomial time algorithm to solve the Discrete Logarithm
Problem and the fastest known algorithm works in exponential time.