Suspicious Remote File Download via Certutil URLCache via process_creation

ATT&CK techniques

C2

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
- T1105Ingress Tool Transfer
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects certutil.exe abused with the urlcache and split arguments to download remote files, an ingress technique used during Operation Jacana against a Guyanese government entity. Attackers use certutil as a trusted downloader to stage additional tooling while blending with normal certificate activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1105 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious PlushDaemon EdgeStepper Configuration File Creation

Suspicious BeaverTail C2 Download over Non-Standard Port 1224 (via proxy)

Suspicious Telegraph-Hosted Encrypted Payload Retrieval (via proxy)

Suspicious ClickFix PowerShell Download Cradle via TAG-150 Tradecraft

Malicious PowerShell Download of FortiEndpoint Patch Masquerade via EKZ Stealer

Malicious PowerShell StreamReader WebRequest Download Cradle

Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle via Net.WebClient DownloadFile

Suspicious Pastebin Raw Content Retrieval via curl (via process_creation)

Suspicious Curl Download of DAT Payload Followed by Rundll32 Execution

Suspicious Remote File Download via Certutil URLCache via process_creation

Pivot detection · T1105 · 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 →