Sigma rule: ADCS - Certighost Ghost Machine Account Creation

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-f1d36d164a93, updated 2026-07-30T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
ADCS - Certighost Ghost Machine Account Creation
Status
experimental
Level
high
Author
Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
Date
2026-07-30
File
rules-emerging-threats/2026/Exploits/CVE-2026-54121/win_security_adcs_certighost_ghost_machine_account_creation.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the creation of a machine account whose name starts with 'GHOST', which is the
naming convention used by the CVE-2026-54121 (Certighost) exploit tooling.

The public proof-of-concept for Certighost creates a temporary machine account with a
name of the form GHOST<random>$ before enrolling for a DC certificate via the cdc chase
path. The attacker-controlled machine account is used as the requester identity in the
certificate request; the cdc attribute then redirects the CA to a rogue host that returns
a forged Domain Controller identity. The resulting certificate carries the DC's SID and
DNS name, enabling full PKINIT authentication as the targeted DC followed by DCSync.

A machine account creation event (4741) where TargetUserName starts with 'GHOST' and
ends with '$' is a high-fidelity indicator of this attack tool's execution. Legitimate
environments very rarely provision machine accounts with this prefix.

Log source

product
windows
service
security
definition
Requirements: Audit Policy : Account Management > Audit Computer Account Management

Detection

selection:
    EventID: 4741
    TargetUserName|startswith: 'GHOST'
    TargetUserName|endswith: '$'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Unlikely

Tags

  • attack.privilege-escalation
  • attack.credential-access
  • attack.persistence
  • attack.t1136.002
  • attack.t1649
  • cve.2026-54121
  • detection.emerging-threats

CVEs this rule names

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules-emerging-threats/2026/Exploits/CVE-2026-54121/win_security_adcs_certighost_ghost_machine_account_creation.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "ADCS - Certighost Ghost Machine Account Creation" by Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules-emerging-threats/2026/Exploits/CVE-2026-54121/win_security_adcs_certighost_ghost_machine_account_creation.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: ADCS - Certighost Ghost Machine Account Creation",
entity page, dataset version ref-f1d36d164a93, updated 2026-07-30T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/fa0bac5f-d170-4a91-9780-1ad71dc1f49e (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule fa0bac5f-d170-4a91-9780-1ad71dc1f49e, 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.