Vulnerability in Akeo Rufus
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.
Vulnerability class: TOCTOU (Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use)
EPSS: 0.002 (8.7th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.3 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Akeo Rufus
- Pbatard Rufus — versions < 4.12_BETA
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (Patch, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Broken Link)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-23988?
- CVE-2026-23988 is a high-severity vulnerability in Akeo Rufus, classified under Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2026-01-22.
- How severe is CVE-2026-23988?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.