CVE-2024-21862
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability in Intel Quartus Prime Standard Edition Design software allows authenticated local users to escalate privileges by exploiting an uncontrolled search path. Attackers could execute arbitrary code with higher privileges than intended. Only users with local access to systems running vulnerable versions are affected.
💻 Affected Systems
- Intel Quartus Prime Standard Edition Design software
📦 What is this software?
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
An authenticated attacker gains full system administrator/root privileges, enabling complete system compromise, data theft, and persistent backdoor installation.
Likely Case
Local authenticated users escalate to higher privileges, potentially installing malware, accessing sensitive data, or modifying system configurations.
If Mitigated
With proper access controls and least privilege principles, impact is limited to the compromised user account's scope.
🎯 Exploit Status
Exploitation requires understanding of DLL search order hijacking and local access. No public exploits confirmed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: 23.1 or later
Vendor Advisory: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/security-center/advisory/intel-sa-01055.html
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Download Intel Quartus Prime Standard Edition version 23.1 or later from Intel website. 2. Uninstall previous vulnerable version. 3. Install updated version. 4. Restart system to ensure changes take effect.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Restrict DLL search path
allConfigure system to restrict DLL search order to prevent loading from untrusted directories
Windows: Set SafeDllSearchMode registry key to 1
Linux: Set LD_LIBRARY_PATH carefully or use secure loading
Apply least privilege
allRun Quartus software with minimal necessary privileges to limit escalation impact
Windows: RunAs with limited user account
Linux: Use sudo restrictions or separate user account
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Remove or restrict local user access to systems running vulnerable Quartus software
- Implement application whitelisting to prevent unauthorized DLL loading
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Quartus Prime version: Open Quartus Prime, go to Help > About, verify version is earlier than 23.1Check Version:
Windows: quartus --version (in command line) | Linux: quartus --versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm installed version is 23.1 or later in Help > About dialog📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- Unexpected DLL loading from user-writable directories
- Process privilege escalation events
- Quartus software running with elevated privileges unexpectedly
Network Indicators:
- Not network exploitable - focus on local system monitoring
SIEM Query:
Process creation where parent_process contains 'quartus' and integrity_level changes