open-quantum-safe liboqs up to 0.12.x rejection risky encryption

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in open-quantum-safe liboqs up to 0.12.x and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects unknown code. Executing a manipulation of the argument rejection can lead to risky encryption. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2025-48946. It is possible to launch the attack remotely. No exploit is available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in open-quantum-safe liboqs up to 0.12.x and classified as problematic. This vulnerability affects an unknown code. The manipulation of the argument rejection with an unknown input leads to a risky encryption vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-327. The product uses a broken or risky cryptographic algorithm or protocol. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. liboqs prior to version 0.13.0 supports the HQC algorithm, an algorithm with a theoretical design flaw which leads to large numbers of malformed ciphertexts sharing the same implicit rejection value. Currently, no concrete attack on the algorithm is known. However, prospective users of HQC must take extra care when using the algorithm in protocols involving key derivation. In particular, HQC does not provide the same security guarantees as Kyber or ML-KEM. There is currently no patch for the HQC flaw available in liboqs, so HQC is disabled by default in liboqs starting from version 0.13.0. OQS will update its implementation after the HQC team releases an updated algorithm specification.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2025-48946 since 05/28/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The attack can be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is required for a successful exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1600.

Upgrading to version 0.13.0 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a7d698ca9c9d98990647459253183cbe29c550af is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at github.com. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• open-quantum-safe

Name

• liboqs

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4
• 0.5
• 0.6
• 0.7
• 0.8
• 0.9
• 0.10
• 0.11
• 0.12

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/open-quantum-safe/liboqs/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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