Detection rules › YARA-L
Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE
Detects the execution of certutil with certain flags that allow the utility to download files
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Stealth | T1027 Obfuscated Files or Information |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaral
/*
* Copyright 2025 Google LLC
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
rule suspicious_download_via_certutil_exe {
meta:
author = "Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Jonhnathan Ribeiro, oscd.community, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)"
description = "Detects the execution of certutil with certain flags that allow the utility to download files"
reference = "https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_certutil_download.yml"
license = "https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License/blob/main/LICENSE.Detection.Rules.md"
rule_name = "Suspicious Download Via Certutil.EXE"
sigma_uuid = "19b08b1c-861d-4e75-a1ef-ea0c1baf202b"
sigma_status = "test"
le_id = "mr_e9ec6964-4883-47b8-a6b3-2ece9962a813"
tactic = "TA0005"
technique = "T1027"
type = "Detection"
data_source = "Sysmon"
platform = "Windows"
severity = "Medium"
priority = "Medium"
false_positives = "Unknown"
events:
$process.metadata.event_type = "PROCESS_LAUNCH"
(
re.regex($process.target.process.file.full_path, `\\certutil\.exe$`) nocase or
$process.src.process.file.full_path = "certutil.exe" nocase
)
(
strings.contains(strings.to_lower($process.target.process.command_line), "urlcache ") or
strings.contains(strings.to_lower($process.target.process.command_line), "verifyctl ")
)
strings.contains(strings.to_lower($process.target.process.command_line), "http")
$process.principal.hostname = $hostname
match:
$hostname over 5m
outcome:
$risk_score = max(if($process.principal.user.userid = "user" and $process.principal.hostname = "hostname", 0, 15))
$principal_process_pid = array_distinct($process.principal.process.pid)
$principal_process_command_line = array_distinct($process.principal.process.command_line)
$principal_process_file_sha256 = array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.sha256)
$principal_process_file_full_path = array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.full_path)
$principal_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.principal.process.product_specific_process_id)
$principal_process_parent_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.principal.process.parent_process.product_specific_process_id)
$target_process_pid = array_distinct($process.target.process.pid)
$target_process_command_line = array_distinct($process.target.process.command_line)
$target_process_file_sha256 = array_distinct($process.target.process.file.sha256)
$target_process_file_full_path = array_distinct($process.target.process.file.full_path)
$target_process_product_specfic_process_id = array_distinct($process.target.process.product_specific_process_id)
$principal_user_userid = array_distinct($process.principal.user.userid)
$log_type = array_distinct(strings.concat($process.metadata.log_type,"/",$process.metadata.product_event_type))
condition:
$process
}
Detection logic
Fires when at least one $process event in the 5m window.
Events
$process
target.process.file.full_path matches "\\certutil\.exe$"src.process.file.full_path = "certutil.exe"target.process.command_line contains "urlcache "target.process.command_line contains "verifyctl "target.process.command_line contains "http"
Correlation
Outcome
Fields the detection emits on a match. $risk_score drives alerting; Chronicle surfaces the rest on the detection.
| Field | Expression |
|---|---|
risk_score | max(if($process.principal.user.userid = "user" and $process.principal.hostname = "hostname", 0, 15)) |
principal_process_pid | array_distinct($process.principal.process.pid) |
principal_process_command_line | array_distinct($process.principal.process.command_line) |
principal_process_file_sha256 | array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.sha256) |
principal_process_file_full_path | array_distinct($process.principal.process.file.full_path) |
principal_process_product_specfic_process_id | array_distinct($process.principal.process.product_specific_process_id) |
principal_process_parent_process_product_specfic_process_id | array_distinct($process.principal.process.parent_process.product_specific_process_id) |
target_process_pid | array_distinct($process.target.process.pid) |
target_process_command_line | array_distinct($process.target.process.command_line) |
target_process_file_sha256 | array_distinct($process.target.process.file.sha256) |
target_process_file_full_path | array_distinct($process.target.process.file.full_path) |
target_process_product_specfic_process_id | array_distinct($process.target.process.product_specific_process_id) |
principal_user_userid | array_distinct($process.principal.user.userid) |
log_type | array_distinct(strings.concat($process.metadata.log_type,"/",$process.metadata.product_event_type)) |