liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Prior to 0.16.0, OQS_KEM_encaps_derand can dereference an uninitialized encaps_derand function pointer when called on NTRU-HPS-2048-509, NTRU-HPS-2048-677, NTRU-HPS-4096-821, NTRU-HPS-4096-1229, NTRU-HRSS-701, or NTRU-HRSS-1373. The affected NTRU constructors omit the OQS_KEM.encaps_derand member because those schemes do not support derandomized encapsulation, OQS_KEM objects are allocated without zero initialization, and the wrapper in src/kem/kem.c checks only that the OQS_KEM pointer is non-null before calling through the residual heap value. An application is affected only if it instantiates one of those six NTRU KEMs and invokes OQS_KEM_encaps_derand on it. The supported impact is a calling-process crash and denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 0.16.0.
History

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 23:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Open Quantum Safe
Open Quantum Safe liboqs
Vendors & Products Open Quantum Safe
Open Quantum Safe liboqs

Fri, 06 Nov 2026 21:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description liboqs is a C-language cryptographic library that provides implementations of post-quantum cryptography algorithms. Prior to 0.16.0, OQS_KEM_encaps_derand can dereference an uninitialized encaps_derand function pointer when called on NTRU-HPS-2048-509, NTRU-HPS-2048-677, NTRU-HPS-4096-821, NTRU-HPS-4096-1229, NTRU-HRSS-701, or NTRU-HRSS-1373. The affected NTRU constructors omit the OQS_KEM.encaps_derand member because those schemes do not support derandomized encapsulation, OQS_KEM objects are allocated without zero initialization, and the wrapper in src/kem/kem.c checks only that the OQS_KEM pointer is non-null before calling through the residual heap value. An application is affected only if it instantiates one of those six NTRU KEMs and invokes OQS_KEM_encaps_derand on it. The supported impact is a calling-process crash and denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 0.16.0.
Title liboqs: Uninitialized function-pointer dereference in OQS_KEM_encaps_derand for NTRU KEMs
Weaknesses CWE-824
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 5.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published: 2026-11-06T21:23:45.399Z

Updated: 2026-11-06T21:23:45.399Z

Reserved: 2026-05-19T22:16:39.503Z

Link: CVE-2026-47738

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-11-06T22:17:51.630

Modified: 2026-11-06T22:17:51.630

Link: CVE-2026-47738

cve-icon Redhat

No data.