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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History
Thu, 22 Jan 2026 23:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | |
| Title | Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-367 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published:
Updated: 2026-01-22T21:52:26.925Z
Reserved: 2026-01-19T18:49:20.657Z
Link: CVE-2026-23988
No data.
Status : Received
Published: 2026-01-22T22:16:21.193
Modified: 2026-01-22T22:16:21.193
Link: CVE-2026-23988
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
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Weaknesses