{"id":"CVE-2026-23988","aliases":["EUVD-2026-4202","GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9"],"status":"published","title":"Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling","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.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-09","score":0.00206,"percentile":0.10667,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-367"],"published":"2026-01-22T21:52:26Z","modified":"2026-11-04T02:47:33Z","products":[{"vendor":"akeo","product":"rufus"},{"vendor":"pbatard","product":"rufus"}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM","Exploit","Vendor Advisory","advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","Patch","fix"]},{"url":"https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA","tags":["x_refsource_MISC","Broken Link","web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23988.json","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23988","tags":["advisory"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2026-23988","title":"Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling","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.","status":"published","published":"2026-01-22T21:52:26.925Z","modified":"2026-01-23T20:13:25.446Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-367"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T13:42:15.603999Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2026-4202","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.","status":"published","published":"2026-01-22T21:52:26Z","modified":"2026-01-23T20:13:25Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T19:48:47.68467Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2026-23988","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.","status":"published","published":"2026-01-22T22:16:21.193Z","modified":"2026-06-17T10:22:24.153Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"secondary"},{"version":"3.1","score":7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high","assessor":"primary"}],"cwes":["CWE-367"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:12:04.423757Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"CVE-2026-23988","title":"Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling","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.","status":"published","published":"2026-01-22T21:52:26.925Z","modified":"2026-11-04T02:47:33.355251296Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":7.3,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","level":"high"}],"cwes":["CWE-367"],"updated_at":"2026-11-04T02:53:45.692342Z"}]}}