Detection rules › Splunk
Certutil Root Certificate Install (Windows Event Log)
Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers. Root certificates are used in public key cryptography to identify a root certificate authority (CA)
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Defense Impairment | T1553.004 Subvert Trust Controls: Install Root Certificate |
References
Event coverage
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Rule body yaml
id: '8199.10096'
title: Certutil Root Certificate Install
description: 'Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to
avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers. Root certificates
are used in public key cryptography to identify a root certificate authority (CA).
Atomics T1553.004 Test #5'
logic_format: Splunk
logic: '`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR
"<EventID>4688<") TERM(-addstore) | table _time, host, user, signature_id, process,
process_*, parent_* | bin span=1s | stats values(*) as * by _time, host '
techniques:
- defense-evasion:subvert trust controls:install root certificate
technique_id:
- T1553.004
data_category:
- Windows event logs
- Process command-line parameters
references:
- https://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/retefe-banking-trojan-targets-sweden-switzerland-and-japan/
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: search
`get_endpoint_data` `get_endpoint_data_winevent` (TERM(EventCode=4688) OR "<EventID>4688<") TERM(-addstore)
Stage 2: table
| table _time, host, user, signature_id, process, process_*, parent_*
Stage 3: bucket
| bin span=1s
Stage 4: stats
| stats values(*) as * by _time, host
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
EventCode | eq |
|
Search terms
Bare-string tokens in the SPL search body. Splunk matches each token against _raw (the untyped raw event text) anywhere it appears, not against a specific field. These don't surface in the Indicators table because they aren't predicates on a known field.
| Stage | Term |
|---|---|
| 1 | TERM |
| 1 | "<EventID>4688<" |
| 1 | "-addstore" |