CVE-2026-23988
HIGHRufus < 4.12 - Time-of-check Time-of-use Race Condition in Fido PowerShell Script Handling
Title source: llmDescription
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.
References (3)
Core 3
Core References
Vendor Advisory x_refsource_confirm
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9
Patch x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873
Release Notes x_refsource_misc
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA
Scores
CVSS v3
7.3
EPSS
0.0019
EPSS Percentile
8.5%
Attack Vector
LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
poc
Automatable
no
Technical Impact
total
Details
CWE
CWE-367
Status
published
Products (1)
akeo/rufus
< 4.12
Published
Jan 22, 2026
Tracked Since
Feb 18, 2026