HQC
- Algorithm type: Key encapsulation mechanism.
- Main cryptographic assumption: Syndrome decoding of structure codes (Hamming Quasi-Cyclic).
- Principal submitters: Carlos Aguilar Melchor, Nicolas Aragon, Slim Bettaieb, Loïc Bidoux, Olivier Blazy, Jurjen Bos, Jean-Christophe Deneuville, Arnaud Dion, Philippe Gaborit, Jérôme Lacan, Edoardo Persichetti, Jean-Marc Robert, Pascal Véron, Gilles Zémor.
- Authors’ website: https://pqc-hqc.org/
- Specification version: 2023-04-30.
- Primary Source:
- Source: https://github.com/PQClean/PQClean/commit/8e221ae797b229858a0b0d784577a8cb149d5789 with copy_from_upstream patches
- Implementation license (SPDX-Identifier): Public domain
- Ancestors of primary source:
- https://github.com/SWilson4/package-pqclean/tree/8db1b24b/hqc, which takes it from:
- submission 2023-04-30 at https://pqc-hqc.org/implementation.html
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HQC-128 | NA | IND-CCA2 | 1 | 2249 | 2305 | 4433 | 64 |
| HQC-192 | NA | IND-CCA2 | 3 | 4522 | 4586 | 8978 | 64 |
| HQC-256 | NA | IND-CCA2 | 5 | 7245 | 7317 | 14421 | 64 |
HQC-128 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 | True | True | False |
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.
HQC-192 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 | True | True | False |
Are implementations chosen based on runtime CPU feature detection? Yes.
HQC-256 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 | True | True | False |
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.