Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling_CVE-2026-23988

{
    "lastseen": "",
    "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.",
    "published": "2026-01-22T21:52:26.925Z",
    "modified": "2026-01-23T20:13:25.446Z",
    "type": "cve",
    "title": "Rufus has Local Privilege Escalation via TOCTOU Race Condition in Fido Script Handling",
    "source": "GitHub_M",
    "references": "https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/security/advisories/GHSA-hcx5-hrhj-xhq9\nhttps://github.com/pbatard/rufus/commit/460cc5768aa45be07941b9e4ebc9bee02d282873\nhttps://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/tag/v4.12_BETA",
    "id": "CVE-2026-23988",
    "bulletinFamily": "",
    "cwe": [
        "CWE-367"
    ],
    "cvelist": null,
    "sourceData": "pbatard rufus < 4.12_BETA",
    "sourceHref": "",
    "cvss": {
        "score": 7.3,
        "severity": "HIGH",
        "vector": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H",
        "version": "3.1"
    },
    "cvss2": [],
    "cvss3": {
        "version": "",
        "vectorString": "",
        "baseScore": 0,
        "baseSeverity": "",
        "attackVector": "",
        "attackComplexity": "",
        "privilegesRequired": "",
        "userInteraction": "",
        "scope": "",
        "confidentialityImpact": "",
        "integrityImpact": "",
        "availabilityImpact": "",
        "cvssV3": {
            "version": "",
            "vectorString": "",
            "baseScore": 0,
            "baseSeverity": "",
            "attackVector": "",
            "attackComplexity": "",
            "privilegesRequired": "",
            "userInteraction": "",
            "scope": "",
            "confidentialityImpact": "",
            "integrityImpact": "",
            "availabilityImpact": ""
        }
    },
    "href": "",
    "category_name": "CVE",
    "post_link": "",
    "product": "rufus",
    "version": "< 4.12_BETA",
    "vendor": "pbatard",
    "ai_description": "",
    "ai_severity": "",
    "ai_vendor": "",
    "ai_product": "",
    "ai_version": "",
    "ai_score": 0
}