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1

Consider two numbers $a$ and $b$ that square to the same value modulo $n$ and don't just differ by the sign. $$a^2 \equiv b^2 \pmod n2$$ $$(a-b)(a+b) \equiv 0 \pmod n$$ Neither of the factors on the left is 0 (or equivalently a multiple of $n$), thus each of them must contain one of the prime factors of $n$. Thus you can use $\operatorname{GCD}(a-b, n)$ ...

2

Let $\mathbb{Z}, +$ be the group integers, $\mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z}, \times$ the multiplicative group of integers modulo $n$, and $\varphi(n)$ its order. Then $\varphi(n)\mathbb{Z}, +$, the additive group of multiples of $\varphi(n)$ is a subgroup of $\mathbb{Z}$. The function $f : \mathbb{Z} \rightarrow \mathbb{Z}/n\mathbb{Z} : x \mapsto a^x \mod n$ for ...

6

No, it is not easy! RSA is based on the difficulty of factoring the product $n=pq$ of two large prime numbers. But if you know $\varphi(n)$ for plain RSA you can compute the secret exponent $d=e^{-1}\bmod \varphi(n);\;$ and you can factor $n$ from the two equations $n=pq,\;\varphi(n)=(p-1)(q-1)$.

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