If someone had a list of all primes, would it be possible for them to factor any integer in polynomial time?

Question

For example, if they somehow got a function that would churn out any arbitrary amount of primes in a row. Could they break the RSA problem then?

I think this answer probably answers your question (with a little thought). — Reid, May 08 '15 at 22:24

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:48

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Mathematically, yes, it will work. Practically, you will require an extremely very long time and an incredible amount of energy, considering the sizes of the primes involved in RSA (usually around 1024-bit prime numbers). It is about billion and billions of years and billions and billions times the energy of the whole universe (RSA: How effective is this keypair-trash attack)

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:48

Community

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answered May 09 '15 at 09:59

Pierre

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If someone had a list of all primes, would it be possible for them to factor any integer in polynomial time?

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