CVE-2025-13664

Privilege escalation via CWD DLL planting

Published Dec 11, 2025 · Updated Dec 11, 2025

DLL search-order hijacking in Altera Quartus Prime Standard Edition 23.1.1 and earlier allows local users to escalate privileges on Windows. The obsolete quartus\bin64\qcmd.bat file used by the original Design Space Explorer uses the current working directory during DLL resolution, allowing an attacker-controlled DLL to load. Exploitation requires low local privileges, user interaction, and specific execution conditions; Design Space Explorer II and Linux are unaffected.

CVSS severity5.4
Medium
EPSS probability0.11%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

DLL search-order hijacking in Altera Quartus Prime Standard Edition 23.1.1 and earlier allows local users to escalate privileges on Windows. The obsolete quartus\bin64\qcmd.bat file used by the original Design Space Explorer uses the current working directory during DLL resolution, allowing an attacker-controlled DLL to load. Exploitation requires low local privileges, user interaction, and specific execution conditions; Design Space Explorer II and Linux are unaffected.

The record

CVE
CVE-2025-13664
Published
Dec 11, 2025
Updated
Dec 11, 2025
Vendor
Altera
Product
Quartus Prime Standard Edition
Classifications
CWE-427, T1574.001
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Dec 11, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Dec 11, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=17.0 <=23.1.1

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Altera · Quartus Prime Standard Editionversion=17.0 <=23.1.1

Published CVSS scores

6.7AlteraCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
5.4AlteraCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

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No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-427Uncontrolled Search Path Element
T1574.001DLL Search Order Hijacking

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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