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PQClean has a correctness error in HQC decapsulation

GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj

What to do

Vendor fix available. Upgrade each affected package to the fixed version on its release line (pqcrypto-hqc 0.2.1), redeploy, then verify what is actually installed.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
not scored
EPSS
No dated EPSS signal available.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact A correctness error has been identified in the reference implementation of the HQC key encapsulation mechanism. Due to an indexing error, part of the secret key is incorrectly treated as non-secret data. This results in an incorrect shared secret value being returned when the decapsulation function is called with a malformed ciphertext. No concrete attack exploiting the error has been identified at this point. However, the error involves mishandling of the secret key, and in principle this presents a security vulnerability. Patches PQClean does not have a release process, as it is a collection of implementations. If you obtained a HQC implementation from PQClean, please update to a version that includes the fixes proposed in https://github.com/PQClean/PQClean/pull/578. Please also refer to our security policy. Workarounds Manually patching is always possible Further details In the 2023/04/30 version of the HQC specification and reference implementation, an extra field (sigma)…

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from ghsa record GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj

Advisory: PQClean has a correctness error in HQC decapsulation
IDs: GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-753p-wrj5-g8fj (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:38 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Unrated
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: pqcrypto-hqc 0.2.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- crates.io pqcrypto-hqc: affected < 0.2.1; fixed in 0.2.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- crates.io pqcrypto-hqc: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on pqcrypto-hqc.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-753p-wrj5-g8fj lists affected ranges: crates.io pqcrypto-hqc >=0 <0.2.1)

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