---
title: "The RSA encryption algorithm - step by step"
url: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/the-rsa-encryption-algorithm-step-by-step.md"
canonical: "https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/17/the-rsa-encryption-algorithm-step-by-step.html"
published: "2004-01-17T20:44:00"
updated: "2004-01-17T20:44:00"
tags: ["Cool Articles", "Off Topic"]
author: "Roy Osherove"
description: "This very cool site shows you, step by step, how the RSA encryption algorithm works. While I've read about the algorithm, it's great to see such a simple example that explains so much so easily. (link via Michael )"
usage: "Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page)."
license: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
---

# The RSA encryption algorithm - step by step

By Roy Osherove January 17, 2004 In [Cool Articles](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-articles), [Off Topic](https://osherove.com/blog/category/off-topic)

**Historical article** · Originally published January 17, 2004; technical details may be outdated.

[This very cool site](http://www.profactor.at/~wstoec/rsa.html) shows you, step by step, how the RSA encryption algorithm works. While I've read about the algorithm, it's great to see such a simple example that explains so much so easily. (link via [Michael](http://www.silenceexilecunning.net/))

## More in Cool Articles

[All posts in Cool Articles](https://osherove.com/blog/category/cool-articles)

- Jan 25, 2004

    ### [Scheduling games](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/25/scheduling-games.html)

- Jan 21, 2004

    ### [The humble programmer](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/21/the-humble-programmer.html)

- Jan 16, 2004

    ### [Hall of Technical Documentation Weirdness](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/16/hall-of-technical-documentation-weirdness.html)

- Jan 16, 2004

    ### [From VB6 to VB.Net - important webcasts](https://osherove.com/blog/2004/1/16/from-vb6-to-vbnet-important-webcasts.html)


---

## About the author

**Roy Osherove**: Senior Solutions Architect at AWS working on AI for production and AI-driven development; author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership, with about 20 years of consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery.

### Sites

- [RobotPaper](https://robotpaper.ai/): This blog: AI patterns and anti-patterns, AI and coding agents, and engineering leadership.
- [osherove.com](https://osherove.com): Roy's personal site. Author of The Art of Unit Testing and Elastic Leadership; consulting and training on unit testing, TDD, team leadership and continuous delivery, plus about 20 years of blog posts.
- [The Art of Unit Testing](https://www.artofunittesting.com): The Art of Unit Testing, 3rd Edition (Manning): readable, maintainable, trustworthy unit tests, plus TDD workshops in C#, JavaScript, Java and Kotlin.
- [5whys.com](https://www.5whys.com): Roy's writing on software team leadership: self-organizing teams, surviving chaos, learning mode and the Elastic Leadership model.
- [Pipeline Driven](https://pipelinedriven.org): Continuous delivery and DevOps practices: build patterns, pipeline-friendly testing, DevOps metrics and enterprise DevOps.
- [Elastic Leadership](https://www.elasticleadership.com): Elastic Leadership, Roy's framework for software team leaders (survival, learning and self-organizing modes).

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### Contact

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### License

Licensed under CC BY 4.0 — reuse, quote and adapt with attribution (Roy Osherove, link to the original page). License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/