This page provides a comprehensive overview of the dependencies used by the PQC-LEO framework. Installation and management of these dependencies are fully automated and handled during execution of the main setup script.

While this information is primarily intended for developers and contributors who need insight into the project's build and runtime environment, it may also be helpful for users who wish to override the default cryptographic library versions.

This document outlines:

• The required system hardware and operating systems
• The specific cryptographic libraries used for benchmarking
• The system-level packages required for compiling and testing
• The Python packages needed for parsing and data processing.

This information helps clarify which software components the project relies on and how the setup script maintains a consistent, reproducible environment. It also includes notes on default versions and how to use alternatives if needed.

PQC-LEO is currently only supported in the following environments:

• x86 Linux Machines using a Debian-based operating system
• ARM Linux devices using a 64-bit Debian-based Operating System

This section lists the last tested versions of the project's core dependencies. These versions are pinned by default during setup to ensure compatibility with the PQC-LEO benchmarking framework.

Dependency	Version Number	Commit SHA	Notes
Liboqs	0.16.0	5a1a854b0dc9f2141bdc771c555ee60c37950183
OQS-Provider	0.12.0	7e9d095aff7967fab9a8ce693e3da5357dc59d58
OpenSSL	Official release 4.0.3	N/A	Downloaded as a fixed release tarball
pqax	Always latest	N/A	Pulled from latest main branch at install time

Note: The --latest-dependency-versions flag selects the latest OQS library versions. The PQC-LEO OpenSSL build remains fixed at 4.0.3; the energy tools can also use compatible system OpenSSL as described below.

For setup instructions and details on using the latest cryptographic dependency versions, please see:

• Installation Instructions
• Advanced Setup Configuration Guide

The following system-level packages are required for building and running the PQC-LEO framework. These are automatically checked and installed during the setup process using the apt package manager.

By default, the setup script will install the latest available versions of these packages from the distribution's package repositories if they are not already present on the system.

• git
• astyle
• cmake
• gcc
• ninja-build
• libssl-dev
• python3-pytest
• python3-pytest-xdist
• unzip
• xsltproc
• doxygen
• graphviz
• python3-yaml
• valgrind
• libtool
• make
• net-tools
• python3-pip
• netcat-openbsd
• libserialport-dev

When installing the energy tools, all installation modes use the same OpenSSL selection process. The tools can use either the system OpenSSL installation or the PQC-LEO OpenSSL 4.0.3 build. The system option requires libssl-dev version 3.3.0 or newer. If this package is missing during the configuration prompts, the system option remains available because the setup script installs and validates it during the dependency installation stage. If libssl-dev is unavailable or still does not meet the minimum version requirement after this stage, the PQC-LEO OpenSSL build must be used. Installation modes 1–3 still require the PQC-LEO project OpenSSL independently for the OQS libraries.

If the PQC-LEO OpenSSL build is selected for the energy tools, the build process reuses lib/openssl_4.0.3 when available, or downloads and builds it as needed. Binaries linked against this version require the corresponding libssl.so and libcrypto.so libraries to be available at runtime.

The provided energy_metric_collector.sh and pqc_performance_energy_test.sh scripts handle this automatically when the PQC-LEO OpenSSL build is used. They add the project OpenSSL library directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH while preserving any existing paths. When running the energy tools manually with the project's OpenSSL build or another custom OpenSSL installation, users must ensure that the appropriate library directory is included in LD_LIBRARY_PATH, or the equivalent environment variable for the target platform.

For further configuration details, please see the Energy Collector Tool Usage Guide page and the Computational Energy Tester Tool Usage Guide page.

The following Python packages are required for testing and result parsing. These are automatically checked and installed via pip during setup:

• pandas
• numpy (installed with pandas)
• jinja2
• tabulate
• pyserial

If the system’s Python environment is restricted (e.g., due to externally-managed-environment policies), the setup script will offer the option to install packages using the --break-system-packages flag. Manual installation is also supported if preferred.