Information disclosure in Open-Quantum-Safe Liboqs
CVE-2025-52473
liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Multiple secret-dependent branches have been identified in the reference implementation of the HQC key encapsulation mechanism when it is compiled with Clang for optimization levels above -O0 (-O1, -O2, etc). A proof-of-concept local attack exploits this secret-dependent information to recover the entire secret key. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.14.0.
Vulnerability class: Information Disclosure
EPSS: 0.002 (10.4th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 5.9 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N.
Affected products
- Open-quantum-safe Liboqs — versions < 0.14.0
- Openquantumsafe Liboqs
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-52473?
- CVE-2025-52473 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Open-Quantum-Safe Liboqs, classified under Information Disclosure. CVSS score: 5.9/10. Published 2025-07-10.
- How severe is CVE-2025-52473?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.9 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2025-52473 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.