Sigma rule: New Root Certificate Installed Via CertMgr.EXE

Rule

Title

New Root Certificate Installed Via CertMgr.EXE

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

oscd.community, @redcanary, Zach Stanford @svch0st

Date

2023-03-05

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_certmgr_certificate_installation.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects execution of "certmgr" with the "add" flag in order to install a new certificate on the system.
Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

# Example: CertMgr.exe /add CertificateFileName.cer /s /r localMachine root /all
selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\CertMgr.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'CERTMGT.EXE'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - '/add'
        - 'root'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Help Desk or IT may need to manually add a corporate Root CA on occasion. Need to test if GPO push doesn't trigger FP

Tags

• attack.defense-impairment
• attack.t1553.004

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1553.004

Related rules

• 42821614-9264-4761-acfc-5772c3286f76 (derived)
• 46591fae-7a4c-46ea-aec3-dff5e6d785dc (obsolete)

References

• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1553.004/T1553.004.md
• https://securelist.com/to-crypt-or-to-mine-that-is-the-question/86307/

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_certmgr_certificate_installation.yml