Obfuscated Certutil Payload Download - Command (via process_creation)
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-08-21
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
C2Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects abuse certutil command to download obfuscated malicious payload.
Reporting behind it
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1105/
- elastic.cohttps://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/suspicious-certutil-commands.html
- bleepingcomputer.comhttps://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/certutilexe-could-allow-attackers-to-download-malware-while-bypassing-av/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/software/S0160/
- docs.microsoft.comhttps://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/certutil
- sentinelone.comhttps://www.sentinelone.com/blog/malware-living-off-land-with-certutil/
- thedfirreport.comhttps://thedfirreport.com/2022/07/11/select-xmrig-from-sqlserver/
- recordedfuture.comhttps://www.recordedfuture.com/five-common-ransomware-techniques
- lolbas-project.github.iohttps://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Certutil/
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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