Sigma rule: Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE
A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-b6a807d155c4, updated 2025-12-01T00:00:00.000Z.
Rule
- Title
- Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE
- Status
- test
- Level
- medium
- Author
- Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
- Date
- 2023-02-15
- Modified
- 2025-12-01
- File
- rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_certutil_download.yml
- Commit
- ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84
Detects the execution of certutil with certain flags that allow the utility to download files.
Log source
- product
- windows
- category
- process_creation
Detection
selection_img:
- Image|endswith: '\certutil.exe'
- OriginalFileName: 'CertUtil.exe'
selection_flags:
CommandLine|contains:
- 'urlcache '
- 'verifyctl '
- 'URL '
selection_http:
CommandLine|contains: 'http'
condition: all of selection_*False positives (as the rule lists them)
- Unknown
Tags
- attack.stealth
- attack.t1027
- attack.command-and-control
- attack.t1105
MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names
Related rules
References
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/certutil
- https://forensicitguy.github.io/agenttesla-vba-certutil-download/
- https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2021/04/13/compromised-exchange-server-hosting-cryptojacker-targeting-other-exchange-servers/
- https://twitter.com/egre55/status/1087685529016193025
- https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Certutil/
- https://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2020/08/23/certutil-one-more-gui-lolbin
Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_certutil_download.yml
Sources and licences
SigmaHQ
"Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE" by Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_certutil_download.yml.
Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License
Cite this page
Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE",
entity page, dataset version ref-b6a807d155c4, updated 2025-12-01T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/19b08b1c-861d-4e75-a1ef-ea0c1baf202b (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 19b08b1c-861d-4e75-a1ef-ea0c1baf202b, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.
Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.