Not scored
CVE-2026-23988
Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling
pbatardrufus
Status
- Not in CISA KEV
Exploit probabilityEPSSchecked 25 Oct
0.2%probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Higher than 11% of scored CVEs
SeverityCVSS
–Not scored yet
Description NVD
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.
Coverage 1 article · 1 outlet
- Booting Up Malware: Critical Flaw in Rufus Grants Admin Access (CVE-2026-23988)SecurityOnline · first in our coverage