Limited information disclosure via HQC rejection collisions
Published May 30, 2025 · Updated May 30, 2025
Cryptographic weakness in HQC in Open Quantum Safe liboqs before 0.13.0 allows remote attackers to obtain limited information. HQC decapsulation assigns the same implicit rejection value to large numbers of malformed ciphertexts instead of producing sufficiently distinct rejection outputs. Exposure depends on using HQC in a protocol involving key derivation; no concrete attack is known, and the disclosed material remains uncharacterized.
Summary
What happened
Cryptographic weakness in HQC in Open Quantum Safe liboqs before 0.13.0 allows remote attackers to obtain limited information. HQC decapsulation assigns the same implicit rejection value to large numbers of malformed ciphertexts instead of producing sufficiently distinct rejection outputs. Exposure depends on using HQC in a protocol involving key derivation; no concrete attack is known, and the disclosed material remains uncharacterized.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-48946
- Published
- May 30, 2025
- Updated
- May 30, 2025
- Vendor
- Open Quantum Safe
- Product
- liboqs
- Classifications
- CWE-327, CAPEC-97
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- May 30, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- May 30, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 0.13.0
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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