liboqs: XMSS Buffer Overread Bug

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Summary

CVECVE-2026-44518
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-05-29 19:16:24 UTC
Updated2026-05-29 19:16:24 UTC
Descriptionliboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Prior to 0.16.0, an out-of-bounds read has been identified in the XMSS and XMSS^MT stateful signature verification code. When the verification function is called with a signature buffer shorter than the expected signature size for the given parameter set, the implementation does not validate the caller-supplied length and proceeds to read past the end of the buffer. The out-of-bounds bytes are consumed only as input to an internal hash computation and are not returned to the caller, so no oracle exists to leak their contents to an attacker. The primary observable effect is a possible crash (denial of service) of the verifying process if the read crosses into an unmapped memory page. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.16.0.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.3 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Problem Types: CWE-20 | CWE-125 | CWE-20 CWE-20: Improper Input Validation | CWE-125 CWE-125: Out-of-bounds Read

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary5.3MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L
3.1CNADECLARED5.3MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
Low

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Open-quantum-safe Liboqs affected < 0.16.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/open-quantum-safe/liboqs/security/advisories/GHSA-wf7v-fhxj-73m2 [email protected] github.com
github.com/open-quantum-safe/liboqs/commit/ef70dea7c85e5637f37828d75e5b9... [email protected] github.com
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