CVE-2025-13663
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 · uneditedUnder certain circumstances, the Quartus Prime Pro Installer for Windows does not check the permissions of the Quartus target installation directory if the target installation directory already exists.
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 · moderate confidenceThe Quartus Prime Pro Installer for Windows fails to verify directory permissions when the target installation path already exists. This allows a local attacker to pre-create or manipulate the installation directory with weak permissions before the installer runs, potentially enabling privilege escalation or unauthorized file system access.
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< 25.1CVSS 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
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/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 Quartus Prime installation pathCheck common installation directories such as C:\IntelFPGA_pro, C:\Program Files\IntelFPGA, or C:\Program Files (x86)\IntelFPGA. Also check for quartus.exe in those locations.Affected if Quartus Prime is installed in any location on the system
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Check installed Quartus Prime versionLocate the quartus.exe binary in the installation directory. Right-click the executable, select Properties, and check the File Version under the Details tab. Alternatively, run 'quartus_sh --version' from the Quartus bin directory if available.Affected if The installed version is less than 25.1 (versions like 24.x, 23.x, etc.)
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Verify installation directory permissionsRight-click the Quartus installation folder, select Properties, then go to the Security tab. Check the permissions for Users, Everyone, and other groups. Verify if any group with weak restrictions (like Users or Everyone) has Write or Modify permissions.Affected if The installation directory has weak permissions allowing unprivileged users to create or modify files in it
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Check if installation directory existed before installer ranReview system documentation or installation logs to determine whether the target directory was created manually or pre-existed before the Quartus installation. Look for installation log files in the installation directory or AppData folders.Affected if The target installation directory was created or modified by a non-admin user before the installer ran, or the directory has been found to be writable by non-admin users
A system is affected if Quartus Prime Pro version 25.1 or later is NOT installed AND the installation directory has weak permissions or was pre-created by another user.
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.
dbcve · scoped25.1
Ensure the target installation directory does not exist prior to running the installer, or manually create and secure the directory with appropriate permissions beforehand. Verify the directory is owned by the installing user with restricted access.
Quartus Prime 25.1
- Backup any existing Quartus Prime projects and settings before proceeding
- Download Quartus Prime version 25.1 or later from the official Intel/Altera download page (www.altera.com or www.intel.com)
- Run the Quartus Prime Pro Installer for Windows with appropriate administrator privileges
- Follow the installation wizard to complete the installation to a new or clean target directory
- Verify the installation was successful and permissions are correctly set on the installation directory
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 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-2025-13663 — 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-2025-13663 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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