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.
Published:Jan 22, 2026
Last Modified:Apr 18, 2026
EPS:Jan 22, 2026
EPSS Score:0.00004
CVSS Score:7.3
Affected Products
Vendor
Product
Action
Vendor
Akeo
Product
Rufus
Akeo
Rufus
Vendor
Pbatard
Product
Rufus
Pbatard
Rufus
Common Weakness Enumeration
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Related CVEs
Common Vulnerability Scoring System
Attack Vector
Network
Adjacent
Local
Physical
Privileges Required
None
Low
High
User Interaction
None
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Low
High
Integrity
None
Low
High
Availability
None
Low
High
