Obfuscated Noodlophile Payload Staging via certutil Decode (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1140Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects certutil invoked with a decode flag, the LOLBin behavior used by the Noodlophile stealer install.bat to reconstruct a password-protected RAR archive from a Base64-encoded document before extraction. Adversaries leverage certutil as a trusted binary to decode staged payloads while evading download controls, making early detection critical for surfacing the fileless chain before the Python stealer and XWorm are executed.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1140 — drag to rearrange

Obfuscated Base64 Batch Decoding via Certutil in Azorult Infection Chain (via process_creation)

Suspicious APT37 CAB Extraction of Staged Payload in ProgramData (via process_creation)

Malicious macOS Payload Decryption via openssl with Password

Malicious Payload Decryption via openssl AES-256-CBC

Suspicious certutil Decode or Remote Download

Malicious Base64 Decoded Shell Payload Execution

Suspicious Bash Decode Chain Using curl xxd and base64 Piped to eval via Linux Shell

Suspicious lwp-download Retrieval of Remote File Masquerading as Image via 8220 Gang

Malicious PolarEdge QNAP Backdoor Dropper Script in Temp (via file_event)

Obfuscated Noodlophile Payload Staging via certutil Decode (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1140 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →