[Phi-hiding assumption][1] can be simply stated as (wrt hardness)

> It is difficult to finding small factors of φ(m) where m is a number
> whose factorization is unknown, and φ is Euler's totient function.


Is the hardness due to this assumption comparatively higher than than the hardness of integer factorization?

My intuition says that finding prime factors of φ(m) is simpler than finding the prime factors of m. So I am believe that the hardness of the phi-hiding assumption is at most equal to the hardness of integer factorization.

  [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi-hiding_assumption