Classic McEliece

  • Algorithm type: Key encapsulation mechanism.
  • Main cryptographic assumption: Niederreiter’s dual version of McEliece’s public key encryption using binary Goppa codes.
  • Principal submitters: Daniel J. Bernstein, Tung Chou, Tanja Lange, Ingo von Maurich, Rafael Misoczki, Ruben Niederhagen, Edoardo Persichetti, Christiane Peters, Peter Schwabe, Nicolas Sendrier, Jakub Szefer, Wen Wang.
  • Authors’ website: https://classic.mceliece.org
  • Specification version: SUPERCOP-20221025.
  • Primary Source:
    • Source: https://github.com/PQClean/PQClean/commit/8e221ae797b229858a0b0d784577a8cb149d5789
    • Implementation license (SPDX-Identifier): Public domain
  • Ancestors of primary source:
    • SUPERCOP-20221025 “clean” and “avx2” implementations

Advisories

  • Classic-McEliece-460896, Classic-McEliece-460896f, Classic-McEliece-6960119, and Classic-McEliece-6960119f parameter sets fail memory leak testing on x86-64 when building with clang using optimization level -O2 and -O3. Care is advised when using the algorithm at higher optimization levels, and any other compiler and architecture.
  • Current implementation of the algorithm may not be constant-time. Additionally, environment specific constant-time leaks may not be documented; please report potential constant-time leaks when found.

Parameter set summary

Parameter set Parameter set alias Security model Claimed NIST Level Public key size (bytes) Secret key size (bytes) Ciphertext size (bytes) Shared secret size (bytes)
Classic-McEliece-348864 NA IND-CCA2 1 261120 6492 96 32
Classic-McEliece-348864f NA IND-CCA2 1 261120 6492 96 32
Classic-McEliece-460896 NA IND-CCA2 3 524160 13608 156 32
Classic-McEliece-460896f NA IND-CCA2 3 524160 13608 156 32
Classic-McEliece-6688128 NA IND-CCA2 5 1044992 13932 208 32
Classic-McEliece-6688128f NA IND-CCA2 5 1044992 13932 208 32
Classic-McEliece-6960119 NA IND-CCA2 5 1047319 13948 194 32
Classic-McEliece-6960119f NA IND-CCA2 5 1047319 13948 194 32
Classic-McEliece-8192128 NA IND-CCA2 5 1357824 14120 208 32
Classic-McEliece-8192128f NA IND-CCA2 5 1357824 14120 208 32

Classic-McEliece-348864 implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?‡
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

‡For an explanation of what this denotes, consult the Explanation of Terms section at the end of this file.

Classic-McEliece-348864f implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT,BMI1 False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-460896 implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-460896f implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT,BMI1 False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-6688128 implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-6688128f implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT,BMI1 False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-6960119 implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-6960119f implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT,BMI1 False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-8192128 implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Classic-McEliece-8192128f implementation characteristics

Implementation source Identifier in upstream Supported architecture(s) Supported operating system(s) CPU extension(s) used No branching-on-secrets claimed? No branching-on-secrets checked by valgrind? Large stack usage?
Primary Source clean All All None False False True
Primary Source avx2 x86_64 Linux,Darwin AVX2,POPCNT,BMI1 False False True

Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.

Explanation of Terms

  • Large Stack Usage: Implementations identified as having such may cause failures when running in threads or in constrained environments.

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