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"NIST says a 2048 bit RSA key has a strength of 112 bits: i.e., there are theoretically 2^112 possibilities to brute force the private key." This is incorrect.
by dchest 11y ago
"NIST says a 2048 bit RSA key has a strength of 112 bits: i.e., there are theoretically 2^112 possibilities to brute force the private key."
This is incorrect. The number of 2048-bit RSA keys is much more than 2^112, bruteforcing is out of question. 2^112 is an approximate number of operations to compute the private key using techniques more efficient than brute force (e.g. number field sieve described later in the article).
- nailer 11y agoAuthor here. That's correct, thanks for spotting the error: indeed, it means using a field sieve as mentioned in the article body, which is certainly not brute force. I've fixed the quote and credited you accordingly.