Hmm... 160-bit public exponent ... that is a little strange. It sounds like the requirement for a (relatively weak) Diffie-Hellman exponent, not an RSA exponent. I know of no weaknesses with using any of the small RSA encrypt exponents (such as 3, 17, 65537), as long as the random padding of PKCS# block-type 2 is properly done. Also, some software cannot handle RSA public exponents that are larger than 4 bytes. In fact, OpenSSL's RSA_generate_key() is one such function! ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Bishop" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, September 05, 2001 5:46 AM Subject: RSA key generation: can exponent lengths be specified? > Good morning, > > I need to generate RSA keys with specified lengths for a smart card > application. The keys should have a 1024-bit modulus, a 160-bit public > exponent, and a 1024-bit private exponent. Could some kind soul either > explain how to do this or point me at appropriate documentation? > > Also, I would like to know whether this difference in the public and > private exponent lengths reduces the security of the encryption. > > Thanking you, in advance > James Bishop ______________________________________________________________________ OpenSSL Project http://www.openssl.org User Support Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Automated List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
