CVE-2026-23988

Rufus is a utility that helps format and create bootable USB flash drives. Versions 4.11 and below contain a race condition (TOCTOU) in src/net.c during the creation, validation, and execution of the Fido PowerShell script. Since Rufus runs with elevated privileges (Administrator) but writes the script to the %TEMP% directory (writeable by standard users) without locking the file, a local attacker can replace the legitimate script with a malicious one between the file write operation and the execution step. This allows arbitrary code execution with Administrator privileges. This issue has been fixed in version 4.12_BETA.

CVSS v3 7.3 HIGH

7.3^/10

CVSS v3 : HIGH

Vector :

Exploitability : 1.3 / Impact : 5.9

Attack Vector LOCAL

Attack Complexity LOW

Privileges Required LOW

User Interaction REQUIRED

Confidentiality Impact HIGH

Integrity Impact HIGH

Availability Impact HIGH

Scope UNCHANGED

References

Link	Resource
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873	Patch
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA	Broken Link
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9	Exploit Vendor Advisory

Configurations

Configuration 1 (hide)

cpe:2.3:a:akeo:rufus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

History

No history.

Information

Published : 2026-01-22 22:16

Updated : 2026-02-27 14:36

NVD link : CVE-2026-23988

Mitre link : CVE-2026-23988

CVE.ORG link : CVE-2026-23988

JSON object : View

Products Affected

akeo

rufus

CWE

CWE-367

Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

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