Number Theory and

Cryptography

 Cryptology -science concerned with communications in

secure and secret form
Encompasses cryptography and cryptanalysis
Cryptography-study and application of the principles and
techniques by which information is rendered unintelligible
to all but the intended receiver
Cryptanalysis-science and art of solving cryptosystems
to recover such information

 Modern cryptology focuses on information protection

which covers not only secrecy but also authentication,
integrity, verifiability, non repudiation

Terminology
Secrecy ensures information flow between the sender
and receiver is unintelligible to outsiders-protects
information against threats based on eavesdropping
Authenticity allows receiver of messages to determine
the true identity of the sender-guards messages against
impersonation, substitution or spoofing
Integrity-enables the receiver to verify whether the
message has been tampered with by outsiders while in
transit via an insecure channel
Nonrepudiation-prevents the sender of a message from
claiming that they have not sent the message

 Encryption used to ensure secrecy or confidentiality of

information transmitted across an insecure
communication channel
Takes a piece of information(message, message block or
plaintext )and translates into a cryptogram (ciphertext or
codeword) using a cryptographic key.

Decryption-reverse operation to encryption

 Encryption (or decryption) algorithm-step by step description of

encryption (or decryption)
If there is no need to distinguish encryption from decryption
ciphers, cryptoalgorithms or cryposystems
Private key or symmetric cryptosystems-same key for encryption
and decryption
Public key or asymmetric cryptosystems-use different keys for
encryption and decryption
Hashing-cryptograhic operation that generates a relatively short
digest for messages of arbitrary length
one-way functions functions for which it is easy to compute their
values from their arguments but it difficult to reverse them
Electronic signature public and relatively short string of
characters that can be used to verify the authorship of an
electronic document by anybody

 Unconditionally secure design-immune against attacker

with unlimited computational power
conditionally secure design-security depends on the
difficulty of reversing the underlying cryptographic
problem
Attack- some protected elements of the design computed
quicker tan specified by the designer

 Ciphertext only attack crptanalyst knows the encrypted

messages only. Task is to find cryptographic key applied
or decrypt one or more cryptograms
Known plain text attack adversary has access to a
collection of pair and wants to determine the key or
decrypt some new cryptograms not included in the
collection
Chosen plain text attack - Known plain text attack for
which the cryptanalyst can choose messages and read
corresponding cryptograms
Chosen cipher text attack- enemy can select is own
cryptograms and observe the corresponding messages
for him and find out the secret key

Background Theory

Set of natural numbers N ={1,2,.}

Set of integers Z ={ .,-1,0,+1,.}
Set of rational numbers Q
Set of irrational numbers I
Set of real numbers R

Rational Numbers
Real number r is called rational if
Z, r = p / q where q!=0
All real numbers which are not rational are
called irrational
Every integer is a rational number
Every rational number is not an integer
Sum of any two rational numbers is a
rational number

Divisibility
Integer n is a divisible by an integer d, when
k Z, n = d * k
Notation: d | n (d divides n)
Synonymous statements:

n is a multiple of d
d is a factor of n
d is a divisor of n
d divides n
n is divisible by d

Divisibility- Properties
If n|a and n|b then n divides both (a+b) and (a-b) (set
of multiples of n is closed under addition)
Divisibility is transitive: for all integers a, b, c, if a
divides b and b divides c, then a divides c
For any nonzero b Z, if n|a, then n divides ab
For any nonzero b Z, |a| |b| if a|b
Any integer greater than 1 is divisible by a prime
number
If a | b and b | a, then |a| =|b|
Any integer can be uniquely represented in the
standard factored form:
n = p1e1 * p2e2 * * pkek, p1 < p2 < < pk, pi is a prime
number

Exercises
Prove or provide counterexample:
For integers a, b, c: (a | b) (a | bc)
For integers a, b, c: (a | (b + c)) (a | b a | c)

If 2 * 3 * 4 * 5 * 6 * 7 * 8 * 9 * m = 151 * 150 *
149 * 148 * 147 * 146 * 145 * 144 * 143,
does 151 | m?
Show that an integer is divisible by 9 iff the
sum of its digits is divisible by 9. Prove the
same for divisibility by 3.
Show that an integer is divisible by 11 iff the
alternate sum of its digits is divisible by 11

Primes
A positive integer p greater than 1 is called prime if
the only positive factors of p are 1 and p.
A positive integer that is greater than 1 and is not
prime is called composite.
The fundamental theorem of arithmetic:
Every positive integer can be written uniquely as
the product of primes, where the prime factors are
written in order of increasing size.
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Prime Factorisation
to factor a number n is to write it as a product of other
numbers: n=a b c
note that factoring a number is relatively hard compared
to multiplying the factors together to generate the
number
the prime factorisation of a number n is when its written
as a product of primes
eg. 91=713 ; 3600=243252

Primes
Examples:
15 =

35

48 =

22223 = 243

17 =

17

100 =

2255 = 2252

512 =

222222222 = 29

515 =

5103

28 =

227
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Least Common Multiples

Using prime factorizations:
a = p1a1 p2a2 pnan , b = p1b1 p2b2 pnbn ,
where p1 < p2 < < pn and ai, bi N for 1 i n
lcm(a, b) = p1max(a1, b1 ) p2max(a2, b2 ) pnmax(an, bn )
Example:
a = 60 =

22 31 51

b = 54 =

21 33 50

lcm(a, b) =

22 33 51 = 4275 = 540

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Least Common Multiples

Definition:
The least common multiple of the positive integers
a and b is the smallest positive integer that is divisible
by both a and b.
We denote the least common multiple of a and b by
lcm(a, b).
Examples:
lcm(3, 7) =

21

lcm(4, 6) =

12

lcm(5, 10) =

10

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Greatest Common Divisors

Let a and b be integers, not both zero.
The largest integer d such that d | a and d | b is
called the greatest common divisor of a and b.
The greatest common divisor of a and b is denoted
by gcd(a, b).
Example 1: What is gcd(48, 72) ?
The positive common divisors of 48 and 72 are
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 16, and 24, so gcd(48, 72) = 24.
Example 2: What is gcd(19, 72) ?
The only positive common divisor of 19 and 72 is
1, so gcd(19, 72) = 1.

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Greatest Common Divisors

Using prime factorizations:
a = p1a1 p2a2 pnan , b = p1b1 p2b2 pnbn ,
where p1 < p2 < < pn and ai, bi N for 1 i n
gcd(a, b) = p1min(a1, b1 ) p2min(a2, b2 ) pnmin(an, bn )
Example:
a = 60 =

22 31 51

b = 54 =

21 33 50

gcd(a, b) =

21 31 50 = 6

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LCM and GCD

LCM of a and b is the smallest integer which is divisible
by both a and b
a=ai b=bi
Lcm(a,b)=max(ai, bi)
(gcda,b)=min(ai, bi)

Euclid algorithm
Initialize r0=a and r1=b
E2: Compute the following sequence of equations
r0=q1r1 + r2
r1=q2r2 + r3
rn-3=qn-2rn-2 + rn-1
rn-2=qn-1rn-1 + rn
Until there is a step for which rn=0 while rn-10
E3:The greatest common divisor is equal to rn-1.

C implementation
long gcd(long a, long b)
{
long r0, r1, r2;
if (a==0 || b==0) return (0);
r0=a;
r1=b;
r2=r0%r1;
while(r2)
{ r0=r1;
r1=r2;
r2=r0%r1;
}
if (r1>0)
return (r1);
else
return (-r1);
}

Relatively Prime Integers

Definition:
Two integers a and b are relatively prime if
gcd(a, b) = 1.
Examples:
Are 15 and 28 relatively prime?
Yes, gcd(15, 28) = 1.
Are 55 and 28 relatively prime?
Yes, gcd(55, 28) = 1.
Are 35 and 28 relatively prime?
No, gcd(35, 28) = 7.

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Relatively Prime Numbers & GCD

two numbers a, b are relatively prime if have no
common divisors apart from 1
eg. 8 & 15 are relatively prime since factors of 8 are 1,2,4,8
and of 15 are 1,3,5,15 and 1 is the only common factor

conversely can determine the greatest common divisor

by comparing their prime factorizations and using least
powers
eg. 300=213152 18=2132 hence
GCD(18,300)=213150=6

Primes
Sieve of Eratosthenes-determines all primes smaller than N
Create an initial set of all numbers N N ={2,3,4, N-1}
S1:
smaller than N
S2:For all integers n<
S3:The final reduced set N N contains all primes smaller
than N

Twin primes and Mersenne

Primes
A couple of primes (p,q) are said to be twins if q=p+2.
Except for the couple (2,3), this is clearly the smallest
possible distance between two primes.
Example 2 (3,5),(5,7),(11,13),(17,19),(29,31),...,
(419,421),... are twin primes

Mersenne Number
A Mersenne Number is an integer of the form
Mp = 2p - 1 where p is a prime
If a Mersenne Number is itself prime then it is called Mersenne
prime
The three smallest Mersenne primes are
M2 = 3, M3 = 7, M5 = 31.
While it is true that only Mersenne numbers Mp, where p = 2, 3,
5, could be prime, often Mp is not prime even for a prime
exponent p
The smallest counterexample is the Mersenne number
M11 = 211 1 = 2047 = 23 89, which is not prime, even though
11 is a prime number
The largest known prime number (243,112,609 1) is a Mersenne
prime