CVE-2026-23988

7.3 HIGH
Published: January 22, 2026 Modified: February 27, 2026
View on NVD

Description

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.

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CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA
Source: security-advisories@github.com
Broken Link
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9
Source: security-advisories@github.com
Exploit Vendor Advisory

3 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
7.3 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.0%
0th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

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