chore: remove dependency that caused required go version to bump to go1.25.8

go.mod

@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core
 
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 replace github.com/go-openapi/json => ./json

go.work

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 use (
 	.

json/benchmarks/go.mod

@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core/json/benchmarks
 
 // go-json-experiment is forked and adapted by fredbi to support go1.25
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/go-json-experiment/json v0.0.0-20260623181947-01eb4420fa68

json/go.mod

@@ -1,12 +1,9 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core/json
 
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/go-openapi/swag/conv v0.28.0
 	github.com/go-openapi/swag/pools v0.28.0
 	github.com/go-openapi/testify/v2 v2.6.0
-	go.step.sm/crypto v0.85.0
 )
-
-require github.com/pkg/errors v0.9.1 // indirect

json/go.sum

@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1 h1:vj9j/u1bqnvCEfJOwUhtlOARqs3+rkHYY13jYWTU97c=
-github.com/davecgh/go-spew v1.1.1/go.mod h1:J7Y8YcW2NihsgmVo/mv3lAwl/skON4iLHjSsI+c5H38=
 github.com/go-openapi/swag/conv v0.28.0 h1:GtqqbyFe7vR5Y7ehxG9W6/OvrSFdf1OLeTGp40TqxH8=
 github.com/go-openapi/swag/conv v0.28.0/go.mod h1:mbUE+mzctnhxi864m0Q07SpN8OowD9JhxmxuYvZZD/k=
 github.com/go-openapi/swag/pools v0.28.0 h1:HPMZWSAfce3rdVTFcjFiCIBtDg9h4x2QlRrHipwhxeU=
@@ -8,13 +6,3 @@ github.com/go-openapi/swag/typeutils v0.28.0 h1:nRBKSBXjDgf01VDPB3fWeD9nQuhCOVeI
 github.com/go-openapi/swag/typeutils v0.28.0/go.mod h1:Srm0xFNRZ1Y+vCxJclo5qzx8aj+1pAKda/YfFPrG0dQ=
 github.com/go-openapi/testify/v2 v2.6.0 h1:5PKH2HE7YJ/LuRPQGvSxBRlFXNQhSetBLlGAgUEu3ug=
 github.com/go-openapi/testify/v2 v2.6.0/go.mod h1:SgsVHtfooshd0tublTtJ50FPKhujf47YRqauXXOUxfw=
-github.com/pkg/errors v0.9.1 h1:FEBLx1zS214owpjy7qsBeixbURkuhQAwrK5UwLGTwt4=
-github.com/pkg/errors v0.9.1/go.mod h1:bwawxfHBFNV+L2hUp1rHADufV3IMtnDRdf1r5NINEl0=
-github.com/pmezard/go-difflib v1.0.0 h1:4DBwDE0NGyQoBHbLQYPwSUPoCMWR5BEzIk/f1lZbAQM=
-github.com/pmezard/go-difflib v1.0.0/go.mod h1:iKH77koFhYxTK1pcRnkKkqfTogsbg7gZNVY4sRDYZ/4=
-github.com/stretchr/testify v1.11.1 h1:7s2iGBzp5EwR7/aIZr8ao5+dra3wiQyKjjFuvgVKu7U=
-github.com/stretchr/testify v1.11.1/go.mod h1:wZwfW3scLgRK+23gO65QZefKpKQRnfz6sD981Nm4B6U=
-go.step.sm/crypto v0.85.0 h1:h3U9gzCcxP1fWbseqy+CwsTxzHFNuoblefy7YP4jBHk=
-go.step.sm/crypto v0.85.0/go.mod h1:Rp/BdP0/ZJ7eYREhXcE4izCABLp0e8ziFqb0LBNG7Cc=
-gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1 h1:fxVm/GzAzEWqLHuvctI91KS9hhNmmWOoWu0XTYJS7CA=
-gopkg.in/yaml.v3 v3.0.1/go.mod h1:K4uyk7z7BCEPqu6E+C64Yfv1cQ7kz7rIZviUmN+EgEM=

json/internal/utf8x/_asm/go.mod

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core/json/internal/utf8x/_asm
 
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 require github.com/mmcloughlin/avo v0.6.1-0.20260701065415-16419356370f
 

json/lexers/default-lexer/internal/strscan/_asm/go.mod

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core/json/lexers/default-lexer/internal/strscan/_asm
 
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 require github.com/mmcloughlin/avo v0.6.1-0.20260701065415-16419356370f
 

json/lexers/yaml-lexer/go.mod

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 module github.com/go-openapi/core/json/lexers/yaml-lexer
 
-go 1.25.8
+go 1.25.0
 
 require (
 	github.com/go-openapi/core/json v0.0.2

json/stores/default-store/concurrent_store_test.go

@@ -8,7 +8,6 @@ import (
 	"testing"
 
 	"github.com/go-openapi/testify/v2/assert"
-	"go.step.sm/crypto/randutil"
 
 	"github.com/go-openapi/core/json/stores"
 	"github.com/go-openapi/core/json/stores/values"
@@ -135,12 +134,20 @@ func randomStringValue(minSize, maxSize int) values.Value {
 func randomString(minSize, maxSize int) string {
 	size := rand.IntN(maxSize-minSize) + minSize
 
-	s, err := randutil.Alphanumeric(size)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
+	return randomAlphanumeric(size)
+}
+
+// alphanumericAlphabet is the alphabet drawn from by [randomAlphanumeric].
+const alphanumericAlphabet = "0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"
+
+// randomAlphanumeric builds a random alphanumeric string of the requested size.
+func randomAlphanumeric(size int) string {
+	b := make([]byte, size)
+	for i := range b {
+		b[i] = alphanumericAlphabet[rand.IntN(len(alphanumericAlphabet))]
 	}
 
-	return s
+	return string(b)
 }
 
 func randomNumberValues(n int, magnitude float64) []values.Value {

json/stores/default-store/concurrent_stress_test.go

@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@ import (
 	"sync/atomic"
 	"testing"
 
-	"go.step.sm/crypto/randutil"
-
 	"github.com/go-openapi/core/json/stores"
 	"github.com/go-openapi/core/json/stores/values"
 )
@@ -142,7 +140,7 @@ func stressSamples(n int) []stressSample {
 			v = values.MakeStringValue(stressRepeat(rand.IntN(200) + 130))
 		case 2:
 			// medium string, stored verbatim in the arena (9..128)
-			v = values.MakeStringValue(stressRandom(rand.IntN(100) + 20))
+			v = values.MakeStringValue(randomAlphanumeric(rand.IntN(100) + 20))
 		default:
 			// small / inlined values
 			v = values.MakeUintegerValue(rand.Uint64N(1 << 40))
@@ -159,14 +157,6 @@ func stressString(v values.Value) string {
 	return string(v.Bytes())
 }
 
-func stressRandom(size int) string {
-	s, err := randutil.Alphanumeric(size)
-	if err != nil {
-		panic(err)
-	}
-	return s
-}
-
 func stressRepeat(size int) string {
 	const seed = "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog "
 	b := make([]byte, 0, size)