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Vulnerability record · CVE-2026-23988 · published 22 January 2026

CVE-2026-23988: Akeo rufus toctou race condition vulnerability

Akeo · Rufus

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.

7.0 CVSS 3.1 High EPSS 0.21% · top 90.0% CWE-367 · TOCTOU race condition
7.0CVSS 3.1 base score
0.21%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
3References, 1 tagged exploit
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

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.

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

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873 Patch
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA Broken Link
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9 ExploitVendor Advisory

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Related vulnerabilities

Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2026-23988), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-26). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.