The RSA cryptosystem is the most widely used public key cryptosystem. It uses a "trapdoor" one-way function to encrypt and decrypt messages. While textbook RSA is insecure, common implementations prepend random padding like OAEP to the message before encryption, which provides chosen ciphertext security. Despite its widespread use, RSA remains computationally intensive due to the need for large key sizes for security equivalents to modern block ciphers. Timing and fault attacks remain a concern if proper countermeasures are not implemented.