logo

Crowdly

A hospital uses an RSA-based system to send encrypted patient status updates to ...

✅ The verified answer to this question is available below. Our community-reviewed solutions help you understand the material better.

A hospital uses an RSA-based system to send encrypted patient status updates to doctors' pagers. The system encrypts short messages like "STABLE" or "CRITICAL" using textbook RSA: 

  1. Convert each letter to a number
  2. Encrypt the number: mod n.
  3. An attacker intercepts encrypted messages and notices that: 

    The message "STABLE" always encrypts to the same ciphertext:  

    The message "CRITICAL" always encrypts to the same ciphertext:  

Why is this "same message → same ciphertext" behaviour a serious security flaw in real-world systems? 

More questions like this

Want instant access to all verified answers on moodle.bcu.ac.uk?

Get Unlimited Answers To Exam Questions - Install Crowdly Extension Now!