Rufus 4.12 Released: Critical Security Update

Rufus 4.12 just dropped with a critical security patch you shouldn't ignore. The popular bootable USB creator addresses CVE-2026-2398 - a TOCTOU vulnerability in Fido script execution discovered by security researcher @independent-arg.
 

Security First

The headline fix targets a time-of-check to time-of-use (TOCTOU) flaw that could potentially be exploited during script execution. Developer Pete Batard also patched replacement vulnerabilities affecting diskcopy.dll and oscdimg.exe.

If you're using Rufus to create Windows installation media, updating immediately is the smart move.

What Else Is New

Beyond security, version 4.12 brings practical improvements for everyday use. Bitdefender users will appreciate the new VHD filtering that prevents those annoying virtual hard drives from cluttering your drive list.

SSD owners get better detection for drives with long hardware IDs - a common issue with modern NVMe drives. Microsoft Dev Drive detection also received an upgrade thanks to contributor Martin Kuschnik.

For IT professionals, Rufus now plays nicer with Nutanix and umbrelOS ISOs. The pre-formatting partition cleanup runs smoother, and error reporting for ISO extraction problems is more helpful.

Bug Fixes Worth Noting

A frustrating bug caused FFU image creation to trigger incorrectly when saving ISO images. That's now fixed. Saving ISOs to paths containing spaces also works properly again.

Under the hood, UEFI:NTFS and the UEFI DBXs (forbidden signature databases) are updated to their latest versions.

Alternatives to Consider

Rufus remains the go-to choice for single-boot USB creation, but your workflow might benefit from alternatives. Ventoy lets you drop multiple ISOs onto one drive without reformatting - perfect for IT techs carrying Windows, Linux, and recovery tools.

For cross-platform needs, balenaEtcher works on Windows, Mac, and Linux with a foolproof interface. Those creating portable Windows installations might prefer WinToUSB for its specialized features.

Installing Windows 11 on older hardware? Pair Rufus with FlyOOBE to bypass TPM and CPU requirements.

Need to edit or mount ISOs before burning? PowerISO handles that alongside bootable USB creation.

Get Rufus 4.12

Download Rufus portable version - no installation needed. The 2MB utility supports Windows XP through Windows 11 on both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.

Download Rufus 4.12 directly from codecs.com or visit the official Rufus website.