---
description: Common Mod, DIfferent e
---

# Common Mistake

In this challenge, we are given two sets of $$N$$, $$e$$ and $$c$$.

```
{'n': '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', 'e': '0x10001', 'ct': '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'}
{'n': '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', 'e': '0x23', 'ct': '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'}
```

The plaintext encrypted to give $$c$$ is the same, and we can observe that the choice of $$N$$ is also the same, meaning the only difference is in the choice of $$e$$. Here we can use some cool maffs with $$e_1$$ and $$e_2$$ to retrieve the original plaintext $$m$$.

Firstly, if the greatest common divisor of $$e_1$$ and $$e_2$$ is $$1$$, then there exists $$a$$ and $$b$$ such that

$$
ae_1 + be_2 = 1
$$

To calculate this, we can use the [**Extended Euclidean Algorithm**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_Euclidean_algorithm). But why is this helpful?

Well if we know that $$c_1 \equiv m^{e_1} \mod N$$ and $$c_2 \equiv m^{e_2} \mod N$$ and we know $$a,b$$ such that $$ae_1 + be_2 = 1$$, we can then use this to calculate $$m$$ like this:

$$
c_1^a \cdot c_2^b = (m^{e_1})^a \cdot (m^{e_2})^b = m^{ae_1} \cdot m^{be_2} = m^{ae_1+be_2} = m^1 = m
$$

In practise $$b$$ is likely to be negative, and in modular arithmetic we use negative powers using the [Modular Multiplicative Inverse](https://ir0nstone.gitbook.io/crypto/fundamentals/modular-arithmetic#modular-multiplicative-inverses). Luckily, Sage can do this for us by default, so we can do even less steps:

```python
from Crypto.Util.number import long_to_bytes

n = 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
e1 = 0x10001
e2 = 0x23
c1 = Mod(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, n)
c2 = Mod(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, n)

d, a, b = xgcd(e1, e2)        # calculate a and b

m = c1^a * c2^b
print(long_to_bytes(m))
```

And we get the flag as `HTB{c0mm0n_m0d_4774ck_15_4n07h3r_cl4ss1c}`.
