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.

Project Subscriptions

Vendors Products
Pbatard Subscribe
Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

No workaround given by the vendor.

History

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 21:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Pbatard
Pbatard rufus
Vendors & Products Pbatard
Pbatard rufus

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
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-01-23T20:13:25.446Z

Reserved: 2026-01-19T18:49:20.657Z

Link: CVE-2026-23988

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-01-23T20:13:21.818Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-01-22T22:16:21.193

Modified: 2026-01-26T15:04:14.850

Link: CVE-2026-23988

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-01-23T10:27:06Z

Weaknesses