RUSTSEC-2026-0288
Vulnerability from osv_rustsec – Published: 2026-08-16 12:00 – Updated: 2026-09-18 09:06 – Source websiteSummary
cosmian_kyber is a fork of Argyle-Software/kyber and inherits a broken
constant-time conditional-move routine cmov in its AVX2 backend. When built
with the opt-in avx2 feature on x86_64, cmov is a no-op: it never performs
the copy. That cmov is the step that applies the Fujisaki-Okamoto (FO) implicit
rejection during decapsulation. With it disabled, decapsulating an invalid
ciphertext no longer returns a key-independent pseudorandom value; it returns a
value that depends on the decrypted plaintext of the attacker-chosen ciphertext.
This restores the chosen-ciphertext decryption oracle that the FO transform
exists to remove, and yields full recovery of the static secret key.
The attack requires no timing measurement, no side channel, and no faults; only the ability to submit ciphertexts to a decapsulation operation under a reused key pair and observe the resulting shared secret. See the linked pull request for the root cause and the reachable call path.
Affected configuration
Reachable only in builds with features = ["avx2"] on an x86_64 target. The
default (reference) backend and all non-x86_64 targets are unaffected.
Impact
Complete IND-CCA break. The plaintext-checking oracle drives a standard chosen-ciphertext key-recovery attack and extracts the entire static secret key. Any protocol reusing a Kyber key pair across decapsulations is exposed; ephemeral-only key shares are not. The identical defect in the parent crate was verified end to end on ML-KEM-768 (full key recovered in 4,272 decapsulation queries).
Maintenance status
cosmian_kyber is a stale fork (last published 0.1.0, January 2023) of an
unmaintained upstream, and no fixed release is expected.
Mitigation
- If remaining on this crate, do not enable the
avx2feature; the default reference backend performs implicit rejection correctly. - Do not reuse a Kyber key pair across decapsulations.
Credit
Reported by 007bsd.
{
"affected": [
{
"database_specific": {
"categories": [
"crypto-failure"
],
"cvss": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N",
"informational": null
},
"ecosystem_specific": {
"affected_functions": null,
"affects": {
"arch": [],
"functions": [],
"os": []
}
},
"package": {
"ecosystem": "crates.io",
"name": "cosmian_kyber",
"purl": "pkg:cargo/cosmian_kyber"
},
"ranges": [
{
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0.0.0-0"
}
],
"type": "SEMVER"
}
],
"versions": []
}
],
"aliases": [],
"database_specific": {
"license": "CC0-1.0"
},
"details": "## Summary\n\n`cosmian_kyber` is a fork of `Argyle-Software/kyber` and inherits a broken\nconstant-time conditional-move routine `cmov` in its AVX2 backend. When built\nwith the opt-in `avx2` feature on x86_64, `cmov` is a no-op: it never performs\nthe copy. That `cmov` is the step that applies the Fujisaki-Okamoto (FO) implicit\nrejection during decapsulation. With it disabled, decapsulating an *invalid*\nciphertext no longer returns a key-independent pseudorandom value; it returns a\nvalue that depends on the decrypted plaintext of the attacker-chosen ciphertext.\nThis restores the chosen-ciphertext decryption oracle that the FO transform\nexists to remove, and yields full recovery of the static secret key.\n\nThe attack requires no timing measurement, no side channel, and no faults; only\nthe ability to submit ciphertexts to a decapsulation operation under a reused\nkey pair and observe the resulting shared secret. See the linked pull request\nfor the root cause and the reachable call path.\n\n## Affected configuration\n\nReachable only in builds with `features = [\"avx2\"]` on an x86_64 target. The\ndefault (reference) backend and all non-x86_64 targets are unaffected.\n\n## Impact\n\nComplete IND-CCA break. The plaintext-checking oracle drives a standard\nchosen-ciphertext key-recovery attack and extracts the entire static secret key.\nAny protocol reusing a Kyber key pair across decapsulations is exposed;\nephemeral-only key shares are not. The identical defect in the parent crate was\nverified end to end on ML-KEM-768 (full key recovered in 4,272 decapsulation\nqueries).\n\n## Maintenance status\n\n`cosmian_kyber` is a stale fork (last published 0.1.0, January 2023) of an\nunmaintained upstream, and no fixed release is expected.\n\n## Mitigation\n\n- If remaining on this crate, do not enable the `avx2` feature; the default\n reference backend performs implicit rejection correctly.\n- Do not reuse a Kyber key pair across decapsulations.\n\n## Credit\n\nReported by 007bsd.",
"id": "RUSTSEC-2026-0288",
"modified": "2026-09-18T09:06:23Z",
"published": "2026-08-16T12:00:00Z",
"references": [
{
"type": "PACKAGE",
"url": "https://crates.io/crates/cosmian_kyber"
},
{
"type": "ADVISORY",
"url": "https://rustsec.org/advisories/RUSTSEC-2026-0288.html"
},
{
"type": "WEB",
"url": "https://github.com/Cosmian/kyber/pull/6"
}
],
"related": [],
"severity": [
{
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N",
"type": "CVSS_V3"
}
],
"summary": "cosmian_kyber: AVX2 backend skips Fujisaki-Okamoto implicit rejection, enabling chosen-ciphertext key recovery"
}
Sightings
| Author | Source | Type | Date | Other |
|---|
Nomenclature
- Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
- Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
- Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
- Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
- Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
- Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
The approach is described in our paper Mapping CVEs to MITRE ATT&CK Techniques: A Curated Gold-Set Classifier and the Limits of LLM-Assisted Label Expansion.
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