CVE-2018-3684
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 II in versions 11.0 - 15.0 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 II versions 11.0 through 15.0 contain Windows services with unquoted executable paths that include spaces. When Windows attempts to start such a service, it interprets the first space-delimited token as the executable name, allowing a local attacker to place a malicious executable in an earlier path directory to achieve arbitrary code execution with elevated 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>= 11.0, <= 15.0CVSS 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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Check if Intel Quartus II is installedOpen Registry Editor and navigate to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\, or check for the presence of C:\altera\ or C:\intel\ (or C:\Program Files\Intel\) folders containing Quartus II.Affected if Intel Quartus II versions 11.0 through 15.0 are found installed.
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Determine the installed Quartus II versionLocate the Quartus II installation directory (typically in C:\altera\ or under Program Files) and right-click quartus_sh.exe or quartus.exe to view Properties > Details for the File Version, or check the uninstall entry in Add/Remove Programs.Affected if The installed version falls within the range 11.0 to 15.0 (inclusive).
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Identify Quartus II Windows servicesOpen Command Prompt as Administrator and run: sc query type= service state= all | findstr /i "quartus" or wmic service where "name like '%quartus%' or name like '%altera%'" get name,displayname,stateAffected if Any Windows service related to Quartus II or Altera software is present on the system.
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Examine service executable paths for unquoted spacesFor each Quartus II service identified, run: sc qc <service_name> and inspect the BINARY_PATH_NAME field. Check if the path is not enclosed in quotes AND contains one or more spaces.Affected if The BINARY_PATH_NAME is unquoted and contains spaces (e.g., C:\Program Files\Intel\Quartus\bin\quartus_pgm.exe instead of "C:\Program Files\Intel\Quartus\bin\quartus_pgm.exe").
A system is affected if Intel Quartus II version 11.0 through 15.0 is installed and any of its Windows services 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 dataEnclose all service executable paths in quotes, or relocate executables to paths without spaces, for all Intel Quartus II Windows services.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-3684 — 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-2018-3684 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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