Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2024/ii/paper-2/12k/a/i/solution

In the Rabin cryptosystem, the public key is , usually with distinct secret primes . A message is encrypted as
Knowing and , the receiver finds the two square roots of modulo each prime and combines them by the Chinese remainder theorem, obtaining the four square roots modulo ; redundancy identifies the intended message.
Factoring plainly enables this decryption. Conversely, suppose an algorithm returns a square root of a chosen quadratic residue. Choose random invertible , submit , and receive a root . With probability at least , ; then
is a nontrivial factor. Thus decryption and factoring are equivalent up to a randomized polynomial-time reduction.

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