Quartus PrimeApplication · Intel

CVE-2022-26840

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-02-16
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 22.1 / 22.2 or later.
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
Improper neutralization in the Intel(R) Quartus Prime Pro and Standard edition software may allow an authenticated user to potentially enable escalation of privilege via local access.

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

Intel Quartus Prime Pro and Standard edition software contains an improper input neutralization vulnerability that allows an authenticated local user to escalate privileges. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input sanitization enabling privilege escalation from a standard user account to higher-level privileges.

MitigationApply the latest Intel Quartus Prime software update or patch provided by Intel to address this vulnerability. Verify that the patch is applied and confirm the software functions correctly after updating.

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
Quartus PrimeApplication
Affected:< 22.1< 22.2

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:3.1/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 Intel Quartus Prime installation
    Check for the presence of the Intel Quartus Prime program directory, typically found in 'C:\intelFPGA\' or '/opt/intelFPGA/' on Linux systems, or search for 'quartus' in installed programs.
    Affected if Intel Quartus Prime software is installed on the system
  2. Determine installed Quartus Prime version
    Open Intel Quartus Prime and navigate to 'Help' > 'About Quartus Prime' to view the exact version number, or check the version in the installation directory's revision history file.
    Affected if The displayed version is earlier than 22.1 for Pro edition or earlier than 22.2 for Standard edition
  3. Confirm local user authentication is configured
    Verify that local user accounts exist on the system that could authenticate to Quartus Prime. Check Windows Users and Groups or Linux /etc/passwd for standard (non-admin) user accounts with Quartus access.
    Affected if Standard user accounts are present and can log into the Quartus Prime software environment
  4. Check for privilege escalation exposure
    Examine if the installed Quartus Prime version accepts user input through design files, project settings, or scripting interfaces (Tcl scripts) without elevated privilege verification.
    Affected if The vulnerable version (< 22.1 Pro or < 22.2 Standard) processes user inputs from standard accounts without proper privilege validation

A system is affected if Intel Quartus Prime Pro (version < 22.1) or Standard (version < 22.2) is installed and standard local users can access the software, allowing potential privilege escalation through insufficient input sanitization.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 22.1 / 22.2 or later
Fixed in 22.122.2
Interim mitigation

Apply the latest Intel Quartus Prime software update or patch provided by Intel to address this vulnerability. Verify that the patch is applied and confirm the software functions correctly after updating.

Recommended fix High confidence

Quartus Prime Pro Edition >= 22.1 OR Quartus Prime Standard Edition >= 22.2

  1. Identify which edition of Intel Quartus Prime is installed (Pro or Standard)
  2. For Quartus Prime Pro Edition: upgrade to version 22.1 or later
  3. For Quartus Prime Standard Edition: upgrade to version 22.2 or later
  4. Verify the installed version after upgrade by checking the Quartus Prime software information

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Quartus Prime Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-26840 — 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 sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-26840 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