Pollard Rho Brent Integer Factorization

Pollard Rho is an integer factorization algorithm, which is quite fast for large numbers. It is based on Floyd’s cycle-finding algorithm and on the observation that two numbers x and y are congruent modulo p with probability 0.5 after numbers have been randomly chosen.

Algorithm
Input : A number N to be factorized
Output : A divisor of N
If x mod 2 is 0
	return 2

Choose random x and c
y = x
g = 1
while g=1
	x = f(x)
	y = f(f(y))
	g = gcd(x-y,N)
return g

Note that this algorithm may not find the factors and will return failure for composite n. In that case, use a different f(x) and try again. Note, as well, that this algorithm does not work when n is a prime number, since, in this case, d will be always 1. We choose f(x) = x*x + c. Here’s a python implementation :

def pollardRho(N):
        if N%2==0:
                return 2
        x = random.randint(1, N-1)
        y = x
        c = random.randint(1, N-1)
        g = 1
        while g==1:             
                x = ((x*x)%N+c)%N
                y = ((y*y)%N+c)%N
                y = ((y*y)%N+c)%N
                g = gcd(abs(x-y),N)
        return g

In 1980, Richard Brent published a faster variant of the rho algorithm. He used the same core ideas as Pollard but a different method of cycle detection, replacing Floyd’s cycle-finding algorithm with the related Brent’s cycle finding method. It is quite faster than pollard rho. Here’s a python implementation :

def brent(N):
        if N%2==0:
                return 2
        y,c,m = random.randint(1, N-1),random.randint(1, N-1),random.randint(1, N-1)
        g,r,q = 1,1,1
        while g==1:             
                x = y
                for i in range(r):
                        y = ((y*y)%N+c)%N
                k = 0
                while (k<r and g==1):
                        ys = y
                        for i in range(min(m,r-k)):
                                y = ((y*y)%N+c)%N
                                q = q*(abs(x-y))%N
                        g = gcd(q,N)
                        k = k + m
                r = r*2
        if g==N:
                while True:
                        ys = ((ys*ys)%N+c)%N
                        g = gcd(abs(x-ys),N)
                        if g>1:
                                break
        
        return g    

-fR0DDY