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Root Certificate Installed From Susp Locations

Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers.

MITRE ATT&CK

T1553.004

defense-evasion

Detection Query

selection:
  CommandLine|contains|all:
    - Import-Certificate
    - " -FilePath "
    - Cert:\LocalMachine\Root
  CommandLine|contains:
    - \AppData\Local\Temp\
    - :\Windows\TEMP\
    - \Desktop\
    - \Downloads\
    - \Perflogs\
    - :\Users\Public\
condition: selection

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Created

2022-09-09

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1553.004

Raw Content

title: Root Certificate Installed From Susp Locations
id: 5f6a601c-2ecb-498b-9c33-660362323afa
status: test
description: Adversaries may install a root certificate on a compromised system to avoid warnings when connecting to adversary controlled web servers.
references:
    - https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/09/07/profiling-dev-0270-phosphorus-ransomware-operations/
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/pki/import-certificate?view=windowsserver2022-ps
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-09-09
modified: 2023-01-16
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1553.004
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'Import-Certificate'
            - ' -FilePath '
            - 'Cert:\LocalMachine\Root'
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
            - ':\Windows\TEMP\'
            - '\Desktop\'
            - '\Downloads\'
            - '\Perflogs\'
            - ':\Users\Public\'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: high