Operating system

CVE-2017-13092

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.0 Published 2018-07-13
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
The P1735 IEEE standard describes flawed methods for encrypting electronic-design intellectual property (IP), as well as the management of access rights for such IP, including improperly specified HDL syntax allows use of an EDA tool as a decryption oracle. The methods are flawed and, in the most egregious cases, enable attack vectors that allow recovery of the entire underlying plaintext IP. Implementations of IEEE P1735 may be weak to cryptographic attacks that allow an attacker to obtain plaintext intellectual property without the key, among other impacts.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

The IEEE P1735 standard for encrypting electronic design IP contains fundamental cryptographic flaws. Attackers can exploit improperly specified HDL syntax to use EDA tools as decryption oracles, enabling recovery of the entire plaintext IP without the encryption key.

MitigationAvoid using IEEE P1735 encryption for IP protection; migrate to alternative IP protection mechanisms provided by EDA vendors or use additional layers of encryption until standards are revised and implementations patched.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Operating system
Affected:all versions

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify IEEE P1735 encrypted IP files
    Search design directories for encrypted HDL files (.v, .vhdl, .sv, .vhd) containing the IEEE P1735 encryption header marker '`protect begin_protected`' or similar P1735 syntax markers
    Affected if Encrypted IP files with P1735 headers are present in the design flow
  2. Identify EDA tool in use
    Determine which EDA vendor tools (Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor Graphics, or others) are used for synthesis, simulation, or implementation of the design
    Affected if Any EDA tool that implements IEEE P1735 encryption is in the design flow
  3. Check for encrypted IP cores
    Review IP core directories and vendor libraries for encrypted core files (.ip, .cpf, .xml) that use IEEE P1735 encryption methodology
    Affected if Vendor-provided encrypted IP cores using P1735 are integrated into the design
  4. Verify encryption method in use
    Inspect design configuration files, synthesis scripts, or IP delivery manifests for references to IEEE P1735, 'encrypted HDL', 'P1735', or vendor encryption schemes
    Affected if The design flow explicitly uses IEEE P1735 encryption for IP protection
  5. Review EDA tool documentation
    Check the EDA tool version and its IEEE P1735 implementation status with the vendor; review release notes for P1735-related security notices
    Affected if The EDA tool implements IEEE P1735 encryption without documented patches for CVE-2017-13092

If IEEE P1735-encrypted IP files or EDA tools implementing the P1735 standard are present in the design flow, the environment is potentially affected by this vulnerability.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Avoid using IEEE P1735 encryption for IP protection; migrate to alternative IP protection mechanisms provided by EDA vendors or use additional layers of encryption until standards are revised and implementations patched.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation12.0 h
  • Implementation20.0 h
  • Testing12.0 h
  • Review / QA6.0 h
50.0 hours of engineering $8,880
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Scan for this in your stack

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dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-13092 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data