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)
Published · last modified .
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.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.002 (10.0th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 10th percentile — 10.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000
Affected products
- Akeo Rufus
- Pbatard Rufus — versions < 4.12_BETA
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9 (Exploit, Vendor Advisory)
- github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873 (Patch)
- github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA (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.