In the RSA cryptosystem, choose distinct primes , set , and choose with . The public key is ; the private exponent satisfies
A message is encrypted and decrypted by
Suppose , where is odd. For a unit modulo , both and are powers of two dividing . If these orders differ, assume without loss of generality that
Taking gives
and hence
a nontrivial factor.
To count successful , write and with odd. Raising to the odd power , which is divisible by the odd parts, maps a uniformly chosen element of each cyclic multiplicative group uniformly onto its Sylow two-subgroup. In a cyclic group of order , the probability of order is and that of order is for . If , the probability that the two resulting orders agree is
Thus at least half of the units satisfy .
Knowing reveals the multiple of . Writing with odd and trying random units therefore yields a factor with probability at least one half per trial; nonunits already reveal a factor by taking their greatest common divisor with . Conversely, factoring gives and hence . This proves that recovering the private key is computationally equivalent, up to randomized polynomial-time work, to factoring the RSA modulus, as summarized by RSA private exponent reveals the factorization.
For and , and
Therefore
Finally, is odd because it is coprime to the even integer . If , then
Thus fixed points occur in complementary pairs , which is the Complementary RSA fixed points property.