System and method for supporting a flexible framework for extendable SMA attributes in a high performance computing environment. In accordance with an embodiment, an information attribute can provide for enhancements in a number of areas. For example, in addition to indicating which version of an interface a queried node supports, the information attribute can additionally provide a mask indicating which vendor specific SMA attributes the node supports. In this way, a subnet manager can identify a version of an interface at each node in a subnet, as well as each node's SMA attribute capabilities. In turn, this allows nodes to run different versions of an interface within a same subnet, without introducing confusion.