Detection rules › Sigma

Suspicious CertReq Command to Download

Severity
high
Author
Christian Burkard (Nextron Systems)
Source
upstream

Detects a suspicious CertReq execution downloading a file. This behavior is often used by attackers to download additional payloads or configuration files. Certreq is a built-in Windows utility used to request and retrieve certificates from a certification authority (CA). However, it can be abused by threat actors for malicious purposes.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Command & ControlT1105 Ingress Tool Transfer

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: all of selection_img

or:
Image|endswith: '\certreq.exe'
OriginalFileName: CertReq.exe

Stage 2: all of selection_cli_flag_post

CommandLine|contains: -Post

Stage 3: all of selection_cli_flag_config

CommandLine|contains: -config

Stage 4: all of selection_cli_http

CommandLine|contains: http

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.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • -Post
  • -config
  • http corpus 31 (sigma 31)
Imageends_with
  • \certreq.exe corpus 2 (sigma 2)
OriginalFileNameeq
  • CertReq.exe