Performance measurements › x86_1 › kem-26 · system: x86_1 · arm_1

kem-26 NSS-HQC — performance on x86-64 (system x86_1)

Independent measurement following the structure of the NICCS x86 self-assessment guide, §3.5 (1)–(7). Not a submitter self-assessment.

1. Basic information

Category: public-key algorithm; function: key encapsulation
Algorithm: NSS-HQC
Implementation versions measured: reference
Parameter sets: HQC-128, HQC-256, HQC-384, HQC-512
Security evaluation: kem-26 report
Measurement method: x86_1 method
Submission: NICCS page

2. Assessment environment

item	value
processor	12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-12700 (CPU 2, one core)
clock	max 2.10 GHz, governor performance, turbo off, SMT off
memory	31788 MiB
OS / kernel	Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie) / 6.12.107+deb13-amd64
compiler / build tool	gcc (Debian 14.2.0-19) 14.2.0 / cmake version 3.31.6
campaign start / end (UTC)	2026-09-25T10:02:21 / 2026-09-28T10:51:21

3. Functional testing (KAT)

Each library was checked against the submitted KAT vectors (SHA-256 manifest kem-26/kat.sha256 in the harness) before timing.

instance	build flags	KAT
`HQC-128`	guide	PASS
`HQC-256`	guide	PASS
`HQC-384`	guide	PASS
`HQC-512`	guide	PASS

4. Performance

instance	operation	mean cycles	mean time	ops/s	median trial	n (trials × iters)
`HQC-128`	keygen	36.60 M	17.5 ms	57.1	17.5 ms	295 (5 × 59)
`HQC-128`	enc	64.37 M	30.8 ms	32.5	30.8 ms	165 (5 × 33)
`HQC-128`	dec	128.53 M	61.5 ms	16.3	61.6 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-256`	keygen	108.08 M	51.7 ms	19.4	51.7 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-256`	enc	194.06 M	92.8 ms	10.8	92.8 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-256`	dec	343.84 M	164 ms	6.08	164 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-384`	keygen	366.16 M	176 ms	5.67	175 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-384`	enc	661.21 M	317 ms	3.15	316 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-384`	dec	1.09 G	521 ms	1.92	519 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-512`	keygen	868.07 M	416 ms	2.4	415 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-512`	enc	1.58 G	759 ms	1.32	762 ms	100 (5 × 20)
`HQC-512`	dec	2.53 G	1.21 s	0.824	1.21 s	100 (5 × 20)

5. Resource consumption

Static memory is approximated by the library's loadable ELF segments; peak memory is the process high-water mark (VmHWM) including the benchmark driver and libc, so both are upper-bound proxies rather than isolated algorithm memory.

instance	operation	static: ELF image (bytes)	baseline RSS	peak RSS
`HQC-128`	keygen	42913	1720 KiB	1932 KiB
`HQC-128`	enc	42913	1864 KiB	1940 KiB
`HQC-128`	dec	42913	1864 KiB	1980 KiB
`HQC-256`	keygen	43305	1724 KiB	2052 KiB
`HQC-256`	enc	43305	1988 KiB	2060 KiB
`HQC-256`	dec	43305	2016 KiB	2084 KiB
`HQC-384`	keygen	43549	1712 KiB	2388 KiB
`HQC-384`	enc	43549	2316 KiB	2420 KiB
`HQC-384`	dec	43549	2364 KiB	2440 KiB
`HQC-512`	keygen	44941	1776 KiB	2808 KiB
`HQC-512`	enc	44941	2792 KiB	2880 KiB
`HQC-512`	dec	44941	2856 KiB	2956 KiB

6. Transmission and storage overhead

External public-key, ciphertext and signature sizes follow the curated performance/external_sizes.csv catalog; secret-key and shared-secret lengths remain API figures. See the size audit for disagreements.

instance	public key	secret key	ciphertext	shared secret
`HQC-128`	3713	3777	5185	32
`HQC-256`	6844	6908	9084	32
`HQC-384`	15371	15467	18571	48
`HQC-512`	27302	27430	31462	64

Symmetric primitives

Survey verdict: bypass — own inline Keccak (SHA3-512, SHAKE256) for everything; DRNG for randomness

Share of each operation spent in the ICCS placeholder hash functions and in the ICCS DRNG (reference build, measured in the same run with link-time wrappers):

instance	operation	pseudohash/XOF/sm3	DRNG	calls per operation
`HQC-128`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 3
`HQC-128`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	drng 2
`HQC-128`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–
`HQC-256`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 3
`HQC-256`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	drng 2
`HQC-256`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–
`HQC-384`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 3
`HQC-384`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	drng 2
`HQC-384`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–
`HQC-512`	keygen	0.0%	0.0%	drng 3
`HQC-512`	enc	0.0%	0.0%	drng 2
`HQC-512`	dec	0.0%	0.0%	–

7. Raw evidence index

Paths are relative to performance/data/x86_1/ in the harness; each JSON file records its commands, environment and trials.

instance	item	file
`HQC-128`	KAT log (sha256 `0ae3f10578153ac0…`)	`kat/kem-26/HQC-128.log`
`HQC-128`	timing dec	`records/kem-26/HQC-128__dec.json`
`HQC-128`	timing enc	`records/kem-26/HQC-128__enc.json`
`HQC-128`	timing keygen	`records/kem-26/HQC-128__keygen.json`
`HQC-128`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-26/HQC-128__dec.json`
`HQC-128`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-26/HQC-128__enc.json`
`HQC-128`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-26/HQC-128__keygen.json`
`HQC-256`	KAT log (sha256 `cfb6f411b0029fb0…`)	`kat/kem-26/HQC-256.log`
`HQC-256`	timing dec	`records/kem-26/HQC-256__dec.json`
`HQC-256`	timing enc	`records/kem-26/HQC-256__enc.json`
`HQC-256`	timing keygen	`records/kem-26/HQC-256__keygen.json`
`HQC-256`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-26/HQC-256__dec.json`
`HQC-256`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-26/HQC-256__enc.json`
`HQC-256`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-26/HQC-256__keygen.json`
`HQC-384`	KAT log (sha256 `3ccb17273638e539…`)	`kat/kem-26/HQC-384.log`
`HQC-384`	timing dec	`records/kem-26/HQC-384__dec.json`
`HQC-384`	timing enc	`records/kem-26/HQC-384__enc.json`
`HQC-384`	timing keygen	`records/kem-26/HQC-384__keygen.json`
`HQC-384`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-26/HQC-384__dec.json`
`HQC-384`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-26/HQC-384__enc.json`
`HQC-384`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-26/HQC-384__keygen.json`
`HQC-512`	KAT log (sha256 `10e89e600d76e1dc…`)	`kat/kem-26/HQC-512.log`
`HQC-512`	timing dec	`records/kem-26/HQC-512__dec.json`
`HQC-512`	timing enc	`records/kem-26/HQC-512__enc.json`
`HQC-512`	timing keygen	`records/kem-26/HQC-512__keygen.json`
`HQC-512`	hash profile dec	`profile/kem-26/HQC-512__dec.json`
`HQC-512`	hash profile enc	`profile/kem-26/HQC-512__enc.json`
`HQC-512`	hash profile keygen	`profile/kem-26/HQC-512__keygen.json`

Scripts: performance/campaign.py, performance/ngcc_perf.c, performance/hashprof/ in the harness.