github open-quantum-safe/liboqs 0.16.0-rc1
liboqs version 0.16.0-rc1
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The Open Quantum Safe (OQS) project has the goal of developing and prototyping quantum-resistant cryptography. More information on OQS can be found on our website: https://openquantumsafe.org/ and on Github at https://github.com/open-quantum-safe/.

liboqs is an open source C library for quantum-resistant cryptographic algorithms. Details about liboqs can be found in README.md. See in particular limitations on intended use.

liboqs can be used with the following Open Quantum Safe application integrations:

  • oqs-provider: A standalone prototype OpenSSL 3 provider enabling liboqs-based quantum-safe and hybrid key authentication and exchange for TLS 1.3, X.509 certificate generation and CMS operations.
  • OQS-BoringSSL: A prototype integration of liboqs-based authentication and key exchange into TLS 1.3 in our fork of BoringSSL; see https://github.com/open-quantum-safe/boringssl.
  • OQS-OpenSSH: A prototype integration of liboqs-based authentication and key exchange into Secure Shell (SSH) version 2 in our fork of OpenSSH; see https://github.com/open-quantum-safe/openssh.

Several demos are available for using the above libraries in applications, including Apache, Chromium, curl, haproxy, nginx, and Wireshark.

liboqs can also be used in the following programming languages via language-specific wrappers:

Release notes

liboqs 0.16.0-rc1 was released on Wednesday, June 24, 2026.

Deprecation notice

SPHINCS+ was removed in 0.16.0.

Security issues

  • Fixed uninitialized encaps_derand pointer dereference #2460
  • Fixed out-of-bounds read in XMSS/XMSS^MT signature verification 077e32a, #2384
  • Fixed Integer underflow in CROSS crypto_sign_open() 25d0a9e
  • Fixed incorrect array size when calling secure_clean ab0e07c
  • Implemented optimization barrier OQS_MEM_BLACK_BOX and applied to ct_select in FrodoKEM #2431

Significant change

FrodoKEM algorithm change

#2192, #2342

Existing FrodoKEM in 0.15.0 was renamed to ephemeral FrodoKEM (KEM_efrodokem_<640|976|1344>_<aes|shake>), and the salted variant of FrodoKEM was added under the prior names (KEM_frodokem_<640|976|1344>_<aes|shake>).

Ephemeral FrodoKEM is recommended for applications where each keypair will encapsulate only a small number of shared secrets and ciphertexts. Standard (salted) FrodoKEM is recommended for applications where each keypair is
expected to encapsulate large number of ciphertexts. Please consult upstream for more details.

mldsa-native integration

#2284, #2391, #3445

mldsa-native is a secure, fast, and portable C90 implementation of the ML-DSA post-quantum signature standard. It also includes optimized builds for x86_64 and aarch64. It is now the default implementation behind SIG_ml_dsa_<44|65|87>.

Updated HQC implementation

#2407

The HQC implementations in liboqs were updated to 20250822 spec. Its upstream switched from PQClean to the official repo. KEM_hqc_<1|3|5> is now enabled by default.

MQOM integration and memory-optimized build flag

#2385, #2367

MQOM is a third-round candidate in NIST's Additional Digital Signatures for the PQC Standardization Process. Portable, x86_64-optimized, and memory-optimized implementations were integrate into liboqs under OQS_ENABLE_SIG_MQOM.

A new build flag OQS_MEMOPT_BUILD can now be used to switch to memory-optimized builds for algorithms that have memory-optimized implementations.

OpenSSH implementation of NTRU Prime

#2356

A public-domain OpenSSH implementation of NTRUPrime761 replaced the PQClean implementation as the default backend for KEM_ntruprime_sntrup761.

Bug fixes

  • Fixed incremental absorption bug in AVX512VL SHA3-512 #2442
  • Implemented fallback for when EVP_DigestSqueeze is unavailable #2433
  • Added API for detecting stateful signature support at runtime #2434
  • Fixed missing initialization and indexing bug in LMS #2416
  • Fixed erroneous MAYO_OK despite failed sample_solution() attempts in MAYO #2403
  • Limited pytest parallelism to prevent memory exhaustion in constrained
    environment #2397
  • Fixed cuPQC ML-KEM derand symbol names and #if/#elif chains #2396
  • Tightened Windows compiler detection #2394
  • Fixed mismatched macros in LMS #2379
  • Made fuzzers tolerant to disabled algorithms #2359
  • Removed inlined exponentiation in CROSS-RSDPG-1 #2357
  • Fixed incorrect arg register update in AVX512 Keccak #2330

Miscellaneous

  • Update mlkem-native to v1.2.0 #2470
  • Removed legacy HQC constant-time test #2467
  • Download Intel SDE from alternative source #2463
  • Updated algorithm support information #2441
  • Added NIST LMS Signature verify KATs #2435
  • Fixed comments on SHA3-AVX512VL assembly file. Thank you Anthony Plank for
    reporting the issue #2438
  • Fixed latent warnings exposed by refreshed CI container images #2430
  • Added common dependencies with include_only in copy_from_upstream #2382
  • Documented algorithm support levels #2413
  • Updated Dependabot configuration #2420
  • Added @loganaden as codeowner for Kyber #2421
  • Bumped gitpython version for copy_from_upstream #2414
  • Updated GOVERNANCE.md and CODEOWNERS #2410
  • Added fuzz harness for LMS/XMSS signature verification #2398 #2412
  • Added fuzz harness for XMSS signature verification #2399 #2400
  • Moved compiler optimization level to CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE #2383
  • Updated pytest package version #2408
  • Demoted armhf to tier 3 supported platform #2406
  • Added Wycheproof tests for ML-DSA #2378
  • Added overflow check for OQS_MEM_calloc arguments #2377
  • Updated Wycheproof tests ML-KEM #2373
  • Updated Zephyr CI tests to recent versions #2369
  • Documented KAT sources and hash verification process #2363
  • Added support for ML-DSA pre-hash sign ACVP test vectors #2362
  • Added external-mu sign gen ACVP tests for ML-DSA #2352
  • Cached ACVP test vectors #2354
  • Added OQS_SIG_sign methods tests in vectors_sig #2350
  • Added the path to the binary include dir #2312
  • Removed local copies of ACVP test vectors #2303
  • New stylesheet for Doxygen-generated documentation #2337
  • Docs: List all optimized implementations #2333
  • Fixed README href formatting #2323
  • Unpined OQS_MINIMAL_BUILD alg list link from specific commit #2326

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