Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-options-i-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2006/c/c1/solution

Use the agreed text encoding to split the plaintext into integer blocks . RSA encrypts each block by modular exponentiation:
Because is a product of distinct primes, its Euler totient function is . The inverse exponent follows from
Thus a decryption exponent is 275, and the three recovered blocks are
To check every block, including blocks not coprime to the modulus, reduce modulo each prime. If is nonzero modulo 29, Fermat's little theorem gives because ; if it is zero the equality is immediate. The same argument works modulo 37 because . The Chinese remainder theorem then gives the equality modulo 1073. Finally reverse the agreed text encoding. The symbols are unspecified, so there are no numerical message blocks to evaluate further.

New to topics? Read the docs here!