Efficient Hardware Implementation of Constant Time Sampling for HQC

HQC is one of the code-based finalists in the last round of the NIST post quantum cryptography standardization process. In this process, security and implementation efficiency are key metrics for the selection of the candidates. A critical compute kernel with respect to efficient hardware implementations and security in HQC is the sampling method used to derive random numbers. Due to its security criticality, recently an updated sampling algorithm was presented to increase its robustness against side-channel attacks.