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I would like to store encrypted AES-256 keys in a public location and give 100 different people access to the AES key by using each of those 100 people's public RSA encryption key to encrypt the AES key. How much does this degrade the encryption? The AES key would be random, not passphrase based.

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Assuming the RSA key was of sufficient size, it would not degrade the encryption meaningfully. RSA does not lend itself easily to batch attacks. Of course, there is still the concern that those 100 different people all have access to the key, so all it takes is one person to be compromised to compromise the other 99. But from a purely cryptographic standpoint, you will not be harming security.

If you want the nitty-gritty math behind it, you may want to ask on Cryptography.

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  • Thanks for the quick response! Point taken about the increased exposure.
    – Chris Seline
    Jun 25, 2021 at 12:06
  • Very good answer to very bad question. What does OP means by encryption degradation? What do you mean by encryption degradation? This is a bit nonsensical.
    – nethero
    Jun 25, 2021 at 14:14
  • I think @forest understood me... but to be clear, I am talking about the ability for the data I am encrypting to be cracked and the key I am encrypting to be revealed. Is it truly a bad question, or just confusing terminology?
    – Chris Seline
    Jul 3, 2021 at 17:50
  • @ChrisSeline I don't think it's a bad question, but it's a little basic and the terminology is a little messed up. The thing with security is that there are so many different definitions to keep track of, so "degrade" could mean many things. I took it to mean "reduce the computations required to calculate the private key from the public key".
    – forest
    Jul 3, 2021 at 22:29

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