Encrypt long text with 2048 bits

Question

I'm following advice from here about how to encrypt a long text in Java.

As encrypting a long text directly using a 2048 bit key is not possible, the advice is to create a 128 bit key encryption key, then use it with AES to encrypt the long text. Then use the 2048 bit key from keystore to encrypt the 128 bit AES key and send/save the encrypted key and the long encrypted text together.

My question is: Isn't the weakest link in the chain the 128 bits? Why can't an attacker (brute force) try to break the 128 bit key directly and just decrypt the long text with it? How to encrypt the long text with 2048 bit key so that the long text would have 2048 bits of security?

Answer 1

No, 2048 bit RSA key is weaker than 128 bit AES key. It may sound that the RSA key should be stronger, because it has more bits, but that is not the case. The reason for that is RSA key has to be product of two prime numbers while AES key can be completely random.