An attacker has captured a target file that is encrypted with public key cryptography. Which of the attacks below is likely to be used to crack the target file?

A timing attack exploits measurable differences in computation time during cryptographic operations and requires access to a live system performing decryption, not a static captured file.

A replay attack involves retransmitting previously captured authentication or session data to gain unauthorized access - it does not help decrypt an encrypted file.

A memory trade-off (time-memory trade-off) attack such as rainbow tables is used against hashed passwords or weak symmetric keys, not public key encrypted files.

In public key cryptography, the encryption key is public, so any attacker can encrypt chosen plaintexts themselves. By systematically encrypting candidate plaintexts with the target's public key and comparing the outputs to the captured ciphertext, the attacker can identify the original plaintext. This is the defining characteristic of a chosen plaintext attack and it is a known weakness when public key systems are used without proper padding schemes such as OAEP.