CVE-2026-23988

HIGH

7.3

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.

CVE Details

CVSS v3.1 Score7.3

SeverityHIGH

CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack VectorLOCAL

ComplexityLOW

Privileges RequiredLOW

User InteractionREQUIRED

Published1/22/2026

Last Modified2/27/2026

Sourcenvd

Honeypot Sightings0

Affected Products

akeo:rufus

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-367

References

https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873(security-advisories@github.com)

https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA(security-advisories@github.com)

https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9(security-advisories@github.com)

IOC Correlations

No correlations recorded

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