Intel® Quartus Family of Tools Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Summary:

Unquoted service paths in the Intel® Quartus family of tools allows a local attacker to potentially execute arbitrary code.

Description:

The Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) server is vulnerable to replacement of required executables, which on reboot may be run with elevated privileges.

Affected products:

• Quartus II v11.0 – 15.0 (CVE-2018-3683)
• Quartus Prime v15.1 – 18.0 (CVE-2018-3684)
• Intel Quartus II Programmer and Tools v11.0 – 15.0 (CVE-2018-3687)
• Intel Quartus Prime Programmer and Tools v15.1 – 18.0 (CVE-2018-3688)

Recommendations:

Intel recommends for the affected products listed in this report, to run the patch found here: <https://www.altera.com/support/support-resources/knowledge-base/tools/2018/vulnerability-in-jtag-server-potentially-allows-a-local-attacker.html&gt;

Or install Quartus Prime release v18.1 or later (when released; check availability here: <http://dl.altera.com/&gt;), which already includes the update.

Acknowledgements:

Intel would like to thank SaifAllah benMassaoud for reporting this issue and working with us on coordinated disclosure.