CVE-2026-44519
Received
Received - Intake
Cache Timing Side Channel in liboqs FrodoKEM
Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-44519, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.
Publication date: 2026-11-06
Last updated on: 2026-11-06
Assigner: GitHub, Inc.
Description
Description
liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Prior to 0.16.0, the ct_select function in src/kem/frodokem/external/util.c for the FrodoKEM-640, FrodoKEM-976, and FrodoKEM-1344 AES and SHAKE reference variants lacks a value barrier in the Fujisaki-Okamoto implicit-rejection path. When compiled with Clang 17 or later at an affected optimization level such as -Os, the compiler can emit a secret-dependent conditional load, causing the real and rejection secret paths to leave distinguishable cache residency after successful and failed decapsulation. A local attacker able to perform repeated cache-timing measurements may use this oracle as part of a private-key recovery attack. Default -O3 builds vectorize both source loads and do not exhibit the reported behavior, and the advisory does not report the same generated memory-access pattern in NTRU, NTRU-Prime, BIKE, HQC, Classic McEliece, Kyber, or the already-barriered ML-KEM implementation. This issue is fixed in version 0.16.0.
CVSS Scores
EPSS Scores
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Meta Information
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
KEV
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-385 | Covert timing channels convey information by modulating some aspect of system behavior over time, so that the program receiving the information can observe system behavior and infer protected information. |
