CVE-2018-3683
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 · uneditedUnquoted service paths in Intel Quartus Prime in versions 15.1 - 18.0 allow a local attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code.
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 confidenceIntel Quartus Prime versions 15.1 through 18.0 contain unquoted service paths, where Windows service executable paths with spaces are not properly enclosed in quotes. This allows a local attacker to place a malicious executable in an intermediate directory path that Windows may misinterpret as the service binary, achieving arbitrary code execution with service privileges.
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>= 15.1, <= 18.0CVSS 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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify Quartus Prime installationCheck for Quartus Prime installation directory, typically under C:\intelFPGA or C:\Altera, or search Program Files for 'Quartus' or 'intelFPGA' folders.Affected if Quartus Prime is installed on the system.
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Determine installed versionLocate the Quartus Prime version - common paths include C:\intelFPGA\<version>\quartus or check the executable version of quartus_sh.exe or quartus.exe in the installation directory. Right-click the executable, select Properties, and view the Version tab.Affected if Installed version falls within 15.1 through 18.0 inclusive.
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Identify Quartus-related Windows servicesOpen Services console (services.msc) or run 'sc query type= service state= all' in Command Prompt. Look for services with names containing 'Quartus', 'Altera', 'intelFPGA', or 'ModelSim-Altera' (which often ships with Quartus).Affected if Any Windows services associated with Quartus Prime are present.
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Inspect service executable paths for unquoted spacesFor each Quartus-related service found, run 'sc qc <service_name>' to query the binary path. Alternatively, open Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<service_name>, check the ImagePath value. Examine if the path contains spaces and lacks surrounding quotes.Affected if The service binary path contains one or more spaces and is NOT enclosed in quotation marks.
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Verify path structure for exploitation riskIf an unquoted path is found (e.g., C:\Program Files\intelFPGA\18.0\quartus\bin\quartus.exe), identify all directories in the path that contain spaces. Each space-separated directory segment before the final executable represents a location where a malicious executable could be placed to hijack the service.Affected if The unquoted path contains space-separated directories that could allow path hijacking (e.g., 'C:\Program Files\intelFPGA\18.0\...' has 'Program Files' as an exploitable intermediate directory).
A system is affected if Intel Quartus Prime versions 15.1 through 18.0 are installed with one or more associated Windows services that have unquoted executable paths containing spaces.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 dataIdentify affected Windows services for Quartus Prime and either quote the executable paths in the registry or reinstall the software to paths without spaces, ensuring all service paths are properly quoted.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-3683 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2018-3683 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- 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
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