huntrule

Windows: certutil.exe ExportPFX certificate export via -exportPFX flag

Flags certutil.exe executions on Windows that include the -exportPFX argument to export certificate material.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2023-02-15
Updated
2026-07-31
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies execution of certutil.exe on Windows where the command line includes the -exportPFX flag used to export certificates to a PFX file. Attackers may use this capability to obtain or move certificate material for later use. Detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry including the executable image name and the full command line.

Reporting behind it

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Windows: certutil.exe ExportPFX certificate export via -exportPFX flag
Pivot detection · T1027 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v1
    No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

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