Mathematics of

Cryptography
Primes and Related Congruence
Equations
 Objectives
❏ To introduce prime numbers and their applications
in cryptography.
❏ ❏ To discuss factorization algorithms and their
applications in cryptography.
❏ To describe the Chinese remainder theorem and its
application.
❏ To introduce quadratic congruence.
❏ To introduce modular exponentiation and
logarithm.

9.2
 Topics discussed in this section:
Definition
Cardinality of Primes
Checking for Primeness
Euler’s Phi-Function
Fermat’s Little Theorem
Euler’s Theorem
Generating Primes
9.3
 Three groups of positive integers

Note
A prime is divisible only by itself and 1.

9.4
 Example
What is the smallest prime?
Solution
The smallest prime is 2, which is divisible by 2 (itself) and 1.

Example
List the primes smaller than 10.
Solution
There are four primes less than 10: 2, 3, 5, and 7. It is interesting
to note that the percentage of primes in the range 1 to 10 is 40%.
The percentage decreases as the range increases.

9.5
 Infinite Number of Primes
Note
There is an infinite number of primes.

Number of Primes

9.6
 Example
As a trivial example, assume that the only primes are in the set
{2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17}. Here P = 510510 and P + 1 = 510511.
However, 510511 = 19 × 97 × 277; none of these primes were in the
original list. Therefore, there are three primes greater than 17.

Example

Find the number of primes less than 1,000,000.

Solution
The approximation gives the range 72,383 to 78,543. The actual
number of primes is 78,498.

9.7
 Given a number n, how can we determine if n is a prime?
The answer is that we need to see if the number is
divisible by all primes less than

We know that this method is inefficient, but it is a good

start.

9.8
9.9
 Example

Is 97 a prime?
Solution
The floor of 97 = 9. The primes less than 9 are 2, 3, 5, and 7. We
need to see if 97 is divisible by any of these numbers. It is not, so
97 is a prime.

Example
Is 301 a prime?
Solution
The floor of 301 = 17. We need to check 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, and 17.
The numbers 2, 3, and 5 do not divide 301, but 7 does. Therefore
301 is not a prime.
9.10
 Euler’s Phi-Function

Euler’s phi-function, f (n), which is sometimes called the

Euler’s totient function plays a very important role in
cryptography.

9.11
 We can combine the above four rules to find the value of
f(n). For example, if n can be factored as
n = p1e × p2e × … × pke
1 2 k

then we combine the third and the fourth rule to find

Note
The difficulty of finding f(n) depends on the
difficulty of finding the factorization of n.

9.12
 Example
What is the value of f(13)?
Solution
Because 13 is a prime, f(13) = (13 −1) = 12.

Example
What is the value of f(10)?

Solution
We can use the third rule: f(10) = f(2) × f(5) = 1 × 4 = 4, because 2
and 5 are primes.

9.13
 Example
What is the value of f(240)?
Solution
We can write 240 = 24 × 31 × 51. Then

f(240) = (24 −23) × (31 − 30) × (51 − 50) = 64

Example
Can we say that f(49) = f(7) × f(7) = 6 × 6 = 36?
Solution
No. The third rule applies when m and n are relatively prime.
Here 49 = 72. We need to use the fourth rule: f(49) = 72 − 71 = 42.
9.14
 Example 9.11
What is the number of elements in Z14*?

Solution
The answer is f(14) = f(7) × f(2) = 6 × 1 = 6. The members are 1,
3, 5, 9, 11, and 13.

Note
Interesting point: If n > 2, the value of f(n) is even.

9.15
 Fermat’s Little Theorem

First Version

ap − 1 ≡ 1 mod p

Second Version

ap ≡ a mod p

9.16
 Example
Find the result of 610 mod 11.
Solution
We have 610 mod 11 = 1. This is the first version of Fermat’s little
theorem where p = 11.
Example
Find the result of 312 mod 11.
Solution
Here the exponent (12) and the modulus (11) are not the same.
With substitution this can be solved using Fermat’s little theorem.

9.17
 Multiplicative Inverses

a−1 mod p = a p − 2 mod p

Example
The answers to multiplicative inverses modulo a prime can be
found without using the extended Euclidean algorithm:

9.18
 Euler’s Theorem

First Version

af(n) ≡ 1 (mod n)
Second Version

a k × f(n) + 1 ≡ a (mod n)
Note
 Example

Find the result of 624 mod 35.

Solution
We have 624 mod 35 = 6f(35) mod 35 = 1.

Example
Find the result of 2062 mod 77.
Solution
If we let k = 1 on the second version, we have
2062 mod 77 = (20 mod 77) (20f(77) + 1 mod 77) mod 77
= (20)(20) mod 77 = 15.
9.20
 Multiplicative Inverses
Euler’s theorem can be used to find multiplicative
inverses modulo a composite.

a−1 mod n = af(n)−1 mod n

9.21
 Example 9.17
The answers to multiplicative inverses modulo a composite can be
found without using the extended Euclidean algorithm if we know
the factorization of the composite:

9.22
9.24
 9-4 CHINESE REMAINDER THEOREM

The Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) is used to solve

a set of congruent equations with one variable but
different moduli, which are relatively prime, as shown
below:

9.37
 9-4 Continued

Example 9.35
The following is an example of a set of equations with different
moduli:

The solution to this set of equations is given in the next section; for
the moment, note that the answer to this set of equations is x = 23.
This value satisfies all equations: 23 ≡ 2 (mod 3), 23 ≡ 3 (mod 5),
and 23 ≡ 2 (mod 7).

9.38
 9-4 Continued

Solution To Chinese Remainder Theorem

1. Find M = m1 × m2 × … × mk. This is the common modulus.

2. Find M1 = M/m1, M2 = M/m2, …, Mk = M/mk.
3. Find the multiplicative inverse of M1, M2, …, Mk using the
corresponding moduli (m1, m2, …, mk). Call the inverses
M1−1, M2−1, …, Mk −1.
4. The solution to the simultaneous equations is

9.39
 9-4 Continued

Example 9.36

Find the solution to the simultaneous equations:

Solution
We follow the four steps.

1. M = 3 × 5 × 7 = 105

2. M1 = 105 / 3 = 35, M2 = 105 / 5 = 21, M3 = 105 / 7 = 15

3. The inverses are M1−1 = 2, M2−1 = 1, M3 −1 = 1

4. x = (2 × 35 × 2 + 3 × 21 × 1 + 2 × 15 × 1) mod 105 = 23 mod 105

9.40
 9-4 Continued

Example 9.37
Find an integer that has a remainder of 3 when divided by 7 and
13, but is divisible by 12.
Solution
This is a CRT problem. We can form three equations and solve
them to find the value of x.

If we follow the four steps, we find x = 276. We can check that

276 = 3 mod 7, 276 = 3 mod 13 and 276 is divisible by 12 (the
quotient is 23 and the remainder is zero).
9.41
 9-4 Continued
Example 9.38
Assume we need to calculate z = x + y where x = 123 and y = 334,
but our system accepts only numbers less than 100.

Adding each congruence in x with the corresponding congruence

in y gives

Now three equations can be solved using the Chinese remainder

theorem to find z. One of the acceptable answers is z = 457.
9.42
 9-6 EXPONENTIATION AND LOGARITHM

Topics discussed in this section:

9.6.1 Exponentiation
9.6.2 Logarithm

9.53
 9.6.1 Exponentiation

Fast Exponentiation

Figure 9.6 The idea behind the square-and-multiply method

9.54
 9.6.1 Continued

9.55
 9.6.1 Continued

Example 9.45
Figure 9.7 shows the process for calculating y = ax using the
Algorithm 9.7 (for simplicity, the modulus is not shown). In this
case, x = 22 = (10110)2 in binary. The exponent has five bits.

Figure 9.7 Demonstration of calculation of a22 using square-and-multiply method

9.56
 9.6.1 Continued

How about 2124 mod 8?

9.57
 9.6.2 Logarithm

In cryptography, we also need to discuss modular

logarithm.
Exhaustive Search

9.58
 9.6.2 Continued

Order of the Group.

Example 9.46

What is the order of group G = <Z21∗, ×>? |G| = f(21) = f(3) × f(7)
= 2 × 6 =12. There are 12 elements in this group: 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10,
11, 13, 16, 17, 19, and 20. All are relatively prime with 21.

9.60
 9.6.2 Continued

Order of an Element
Example 9.47
Find the order of all elements in G = <Z10∗, ×>.
Solution
This group has only f(10) = 4 elements: 1, 3, 7, 9. We can find the
order of each element by trial and error.

a. 11 ≡ 1 mod (10) → ord(1) = 1.

b. 34 ≡ 1 mod (10) → ord(3) = 4.
c. 74 ≡ 1 mod (10) → ord(7) = 4.
d. 92 ≡ 1 mod (10) → ord(9) = 2.
9.61
 9.6.2 Continued

Euler’s Theorem

Example 9.48

9.62
 9.6.2 Continued

Primitive Roots In the group G = <Zn∗, ×>, when the

order of an element is the same as f(n), that element is
called the primitive root of the group.

Example 9.49
Table 9.4 shows that there are no primitive roots in G = <Z8∗, ×>
because no element has the order equal to f(8) = 4. The order of
elements are all smaller than 4.

9.63
 9.6.2 Continued
Example 9.50
Table 9.5 shows the result of ai ≡ x (mod 7) for the group
G = <Z7∗, ×>. In this group, f(7) = 6.

9.64
 9.6.2 Continued

Note
The group G = <Zn*, ×> has primitive roots only if
n is 2, 4, pt, or 2pt.

Example 9.51
For which value of n, does the group G = <Zn∗, ×> have primitive
roots: 17, 20, 38, and 50?

Solution
a. G = <Z17∗, ×> has primitive roots, 17 is a prime.
b. G = <Z20∗, ×> has no primitive roots.
c. G = <Z38∗, ×> has primitive roots, 38 = 2 × 19 prime.
d. G = <Z50∗, ×> has primitive roots, 50 = 2 × 52 and 5 is a prime.
9.65
 9.6.2 Continued

Note
If the group G = <Zn*, ×> has any primitive root,
the number of primitive roots is f(f(n)).

9.66
 9.6.2 Continued

Cyclic Group If g is a primitive root in the group, we can

generate the set Zn* as Zn∗ = {g1, g2, g3, …, gf(n)}
Example 9.52
The group G = <Z10*, ×> has two primitive roots because f(10) = 4
and f(f(10)) = 2. It can be found that the primitive roots are 3 and
7. The following shows how we can create the whole set Z10* using
each primitive root.

9.67
 9.6.2 Continued

The idea of Discrete Logarithm

Properties of G = <Zp*, ×> :

1. Its elements include all integers from 1 to p − 1.

2. It always has primitive roots.

3. It is cyclic. The elements can be created using gx where

x is an integer from 1 to f(n) = p − 1.

4. The primitive roots can be thought as the base of

logarithm.
9.68
 9.6.2 Continued

Solution to Modular Logarithm Using Discrete Logs

Tabulation of Discrete Logarithms

9.69
 9.6.2 Continued
Example 9.53

Find x in each of the following cases:

a. 4 ≡ 3x (mod 7).
b. 6 ≡ 5x (mod 7).

Solution
We can easily use the tabulation of the discrete logarithm in
Table 9.6.
a. 4 ≡ 3x mod 7 → x = L34 mod 7 = 4 mod 7
b. 6 ≡ 5x mod 7 → x = L56 mod 7 = 3 mod 7

9.70
 9.6.2 Continued

Using Properties of Discrete Logarithms

Using Algorithms Based on Discrete

Note
The discrete logarithm problem has the same
complexity as the factorization problem.

9.71