CVE-2025-14596
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 · uneditedUncontrolled Search Path Element vulnerability in Altera Quartus Prime Pro Installer (SFX) on Windows allows Search Order Hijacking.This issue affects Quartus Prime Pro: from 24.1 through 24.3.1.
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 confidenceThe Quartus Prime Pro Installer (SFX) on Windows has an uncontrolled search path element vulnerability allowing Search Order Hijacking. The installer likely loads DLLs without fully qualified paths, enabling an attacker to place a malicious DLL in a directory that gets searched before the legitimate location.
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>= 24.1, < 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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Confirm Quartus Prime Pro is installedCheck for the presence of the Intel Quartus Prime Pro installation directory. Typical locations include C:\intelFPGA_pro or C:\intel\quartus_prime_pro. Use dir /ad 'C:\intelFPGA_pro' or search for 'quartus' in Program Files.Affected if The Quartus Prime Pro directory exists on the system.
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Determine the installed versionLocate the version information in the installation directory. Look for a version file or check the Quartus Prime application properties. The version may be displayed in the Quartus Prime GUI under Help > About, or check the installation log files in the quartus\logs directory.Affected if The installed version falls within the range of 24.1 or higher but lower than 25.1.
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Verify installer usage historyReview installer log files or Windows event logs for evidence of running the Quartus Prime Pro installer. Check user download folders or temporary directories for installer remnants.Affected if The installer was executed from a network share, external drive, or untrusted directory location.
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Check for suspicious DLLs in installer directoryInspect the directory where the installer SFX was extracted or run from. Look for unexpected DLL files that may have been placed there. Use dir *.dll to list DLLs in that location.Affected if Unexpected DLL files are present in the installer directory or extraction folder.
A system is affected if Intel Quartus Prime Pro version 24.1 or higher but lower than 25.1 is installed, and the installer was run from or extracted to a location where an attacker could place malicious DLLs.
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
Update to Quartus Prime Pro version 24.4 or later when available. Run the installer from trusted, local directories rather than network shares or untrusted locations.
Quartus Prime Pro 25.1 or later
- Download Quartus Prime Pro version 25.1 or later from the official Intel/Altera website (www.altera.com)
- Uninstall any installed affected version of Quartus Prime Pro (versions 24.1 through 24.3.1)
- Install the downloaded Quartus Prime Pro version 25.1 or later
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation1.0 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-2025-14596 — 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-2025-14596 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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