RSA Deep Dive

Why it matters

RSA is foundational public-key crypto. Understanding shapes crypto.

The architecture

Choose primes p, q.

N = pq, phi = (p-1)(q-1).

Choose e; d = e^-1 mod phi.

Public: (N, e); private: d.

How it works end to end

Rivest, Shamir, Adleman 1977.

OAEP padding for encryption.

PSS for signatures.

Key size 2048-4096.