CVE-2026-23988

Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling

HIGH
7
CVSS Score
Published: January 22, 2026 at 09:52 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:22 AM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsRufusRufus

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Severity
HIGH7
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
PoC

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 4.12
v < 4.12_BETA
Affected range stops below 4.12_BETA, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (3)

x_refsource_CONFIRMExploitVendor Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9
x_refsource_MISCBroken Link
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-367

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