Rufus fixes Windows ISO crash, warns for vulnerable UEFI bootloaders, adds FFU, ZIP64

The latest version of Rufus, 4.2.4070 Beta, was released earlier today. The new release fixes a crashing issue when users tried to open 32-bit (x86) versions of Windows ISOs. The update also adds detection and warning against UEFI-revoked bootloaders. The Secure Boot Forbidden Signature Database or Secure Boot DBX from Microsoft is basically a block-list for blacklisted UEFI executables that were found to be dangerous. The company also recently published guidance on how to block vulnerable Windows boot managers using WDAC UEFI lock.

Aside from those changes, the new version also brings support for ZIP64, which means users can now extract .zip images that are larger than 4GB. It's now also possible to add or restore disks as compressed Virtual Hard Disk v2 (VHDX) images, as well as experimental support for Full Flash Update (FFU) images.

FFU is sector-based unlike file-based WIM (Windows Imaging file format) which means the deployment of FFU is faster, though you do end up with bigger file sizes as a result.

The full changelog for Rufus 4.2.4070 Beta is given below:

• Add detection and warning for UEFI revoked bootloaders (including ones revoked through SkuSiPolicy.p7b)

• Add ZIP64 support, to extract .zip images that are larger than 4 GB

• Add saving and restoring current drive to/from compressed VHDX image

• Add saving and restoring current drive to/from compressed FFU (Full Flash Update) image [EXPERIMENTAL]

• Fix a crash when trying to open Windows ISOs, with the x86 32-bit version

• Increase ISO → ESP limit, for Debian 12 netinst images

• Make sure the main partition size is aligned to the cluster size

   

You can download Rufus 4.2 beta either from Neowin, or from the official website, or from its GitHub page.

Source