CVE-2024-36405 Information disclosure in liboqs
Attackers can recover secret keys via timing side-channels in Kyber implementations compiled with specific Clang optimization flags.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2024-36405?
CVE-2024-36405 is a medium-severity vulnerability in open-quantum-safe liboqs, published on 10 Jun 2024. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. A control-flow timing lean has been identified in the reference implementation of the Kyber key encapsulation mechanism when it is compiled with Clang 15-18 for `-Os`, `-O1`, and other compilation options. A proof-of-concept local attack on the reference implementation leaks the entire ML-KEM 512 secret key in ~10 minutes using end-to-end decapsulation timing measurements. The issue has been fixed in version 0.10.1. As a possible workaround, some compiler options may produce vectorized code that does not leak secret information, however relying on these compiler options as a workaround may not be reliable.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-36405?
It affects 1 product.
Linux distribution packages (1)
liboqs openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 0.10.1-1.1 |
Products include Openquantumsafe Liboqs.
How do I fix CVE-2024-36405?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2024-36405 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-36405 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in open-quantum-safe liboqs
- CVE-2024-31510 Other in n/a
- CVE-2024-54137 liboqs has a correctness error in HQC decapsulation
- CVE-2025-52473 liboqs secret-dependent branching in HQC reference implementation when compiled with Clang 17-20
- CVE-2026-44518 liboqs: XMSS Buffer Overread Bug
- CVE-2026-46344 liboqs: Heap-buffer-overflow in XMSS verification path via OID-controlled parameter mismatch (xmss_commons.c:194)
Sources
Also known as GHSA-f2v9-5498-2vpp, openSUSE-SU-2024:14039-1.