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Ask HN: What would you do if you cracked RSA encryption?

9 points by bbkane ↗ HN
I was daydreaming about this the other day- there are alternatives to RSA, but I still think it underpins most Internet security. What would you do if you could economically crack it?

Sell the tech to a government? Write a paper? Keep it to yourself? Buy/sell a lot of stock? I don't know, so I figured it'd be fun to ask.

13 comments

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micahdeath
Brag and make tools that use it. =P (I wouldn't distribute anything.)
JohnFen
I'd publish all of the details and example code. I think that's literally the only way to mitigate the problems with RSA being cracked. After all, if I can do it, others can as well.

I'd publish it anonymously, though, in an attempt to prevent having to spend a lot of time discussing it with others (particularly the press).

KomoD
Would certainly keep it to myself and have some fun with it
[dead] bjourne
[flagged]
tomcam
Wait you told me you were already doing it
ActorNightly
Id probably set up a blackhat service first.

With the cracking algorithm I can now intercept and decrypt SSH traffic, it be a matter of time before I gain enough shell access to internet connected computers, on which I can run this anonymously. Probably just hang out in enough cafes in SF and Seattle with Evil Twin hotspot and enough people would be sshing into stuff for me to grab the keys.

Then once I have like 30 million in bitcoin, Id probably just post the crack anonymously on a forum, and then spend the rest of my time carefully managing the crypto and converting it to cash to make sure I don't get audited.