CVE-2018-3687
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 Programmer and Tools 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 Programmer and Tools versions 11.0-15.0 contain an unquoted service path vulnerability. A local attacker with write access to a path segment before the executable name (due to unquoted paths with spaces) can place a malicious executable that the service will execute upon restart, achieving arbitrary code execution with elevated (SYSTEM) 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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Identify installed Intel Quartus II versionCheck the installed version via Programs and Features in Control Panel, or look for version information in the installation directory (typically under C:\intel quartus or similar). Compare the version number to the affected range 11.0-15.0.Affected if The installed version falls within 11.0 through 15.0 inclusive.
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Locate Quartus II Windows servicesOpen Command Prompt as Administrator and run: sc query type= service state= all | findstr /i "quartus" to list services containing 'quartus' in their name. Also check HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services for service entries with names referencing Quartus, Altera, or Programmer.Affected if Any Windows service associated with Intel Quartus II Programmer and Tools is found on the system.
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Inspect service ImagePath for unquoted spacesFor each identified service, run: sc qc <servicename> (e.g., sc qc AlteraProgrammer) and examine the BINARY_PATH_NAME field. Check if the path contains spaces and is not enclosed in quotation marks.Affected if The BINARY_PATH_NAME contains one or more spaces and is NOT wrapped in double quotes.
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Verify write permissions on path segmentsFor each directory in the unquoted path (e.g., C:\Program Files\Intel Quartus II\bin\programmer.exe), right-click the folder in Windows Explorer, go to Security tab, and review which users or groups have Write or Create Files permissions. Use icacls <path> from elevated command prompt for detailed ACL output.Affected if Non-privileged users (other than Administrators) have Write or Create permissions to any folder segment preceding the executable name in the unquoted path.
A system is affected if Intel Quartus II Programmer and Tools version 11.0-15.0 is installed with a Windows service that has an unquoted ImagePath containing spaces, and unprivileged users can write to directories in the path before the executable.
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 dataQuote all service executable paths in the Windows registry under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\<servicename>\ImagePath, or remove spaces from installation directories, ensuring only trusted users have write access to parent directories.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation2.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-3687 — 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-2018-3687 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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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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