Breaking RSA may not be equivalent to factoring

Abstract

We provide evidence that breaking low-exponent RSA cannot be equivalent to factoring integers. We show that an algebraic reduction from factoring to breaking low-exponent RSA can be converted into an efficient factoring algorithm. Thus, in effect an oracle for breaking RSA does not help in factoring integers. Our result suggests an explanation for the lack of progress in proving that breaking rsa is equivalent to factoring. We emphasize that our results do not expose any specific weakness in the rsa system.