Digital Signature
UOV
Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar Signatures
non-FIPSmultivariate1 parameter setsQNSP tier: default+provider: liboqsalso called: Oil-and-Vinegar
Multivariate signature scheme based on the Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar (UOV) construction, one of the longest-studied multivariate schemes.
Mechanism
How it works
UOV is built on the difficulty of solving structured systems of multivariate quadratic equations where some variables are 'oil' (random) and others are 'vinegar' (chosen). The asymmetric structure enables efficient signing while preserving the MQ hardness.
Parameter Sets
1 variants shipped
Each variant trades security category against key, ciphertext, or signature size. QNSP exposes all variants via the @cuilabs/liboqs-native binding; tenant crypto-policy determines which are allowed.
| Variant | NIST Level | Public Key | Secret Key | Signature | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OV-Is / Ip / III / V (multiple param sets) | L5 | 412,160 B | 348,704 B | 96 B |
NIST ACVP
Conformance evidence
QNSP runs the official NIST ACVP test vectors against every shipped algorithm. Live evidence + SHA-3-256 tamper digest at /verify/conformance.
@noble/post-quantum
non-addressablePure-JavaScript reference; cross-verification secondary on Maximum + Government tiers.
@cuilabs/liboqs-native
non-addressableNative-C primary production engine. Runs across every QNSP backend service.
Use Cases
When to use it
- Compact signatures (96 bytes) for size-constrained signature transport
- Multivariate diversification away from lattice-based signatures
Trade-offs
What you give up, what you get
- Smallest signatures in the catalogue (96 bytes)
- Very large public keys (hundreds of KB)
- 30+ years of cryptanalysis on UOV foundations
References