Windows Steal Authentication Certificates Certificate Issued

name: Windows Steal Authentication Certificates Certificate Issued
id: 9b1a5385-0c31-4c39-9753-dc26b8ce64c2
version: 7
date: '2026-03-10'
author: Michael Haag, Splunk
status: production
type: Anomaly
description: The following analytic identifies the issuance of a new certificate by Certificate Services - AD CS, detected via Event ID 4887. This event logs the requester user context, DNS hostname of the requesting machine, and the request time. Monitoring this activity is crucial as it can indicate potential misuse of authentication certificates. If confirmed malicious, an attacker could use the issued certificate to impersonate users, escalate privileges, or maintain persistence within the environment. This detection helps in identifying and correlating suspicious certificate-related activities for further investigation.
data_source:
    - Windows Event Log Security 4887
search: |-
    `wineventlog_security`  EventCode=4887
      | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
        BY dest, name, Requester,
           action, Attributes, Subject
      | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
      | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
      | `windows_steal_authentication_certificates_certificate_issued_filter`
how_to_implement: To implement this analytic, enhanced Audit Logging must be enabled on AD CS and within Group Policy Management for CS server. See Page 115 of first reference.
known_false_positives: False positives will be generated based on normal certificates issued. Leave enabled to generate Risk, as this is meant to be an anomaly analytic.
references:
    - https://specterops.io/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2022/06/Certified_Pre-Owned.pdf
drilldown_searches:
    - name: View the detection results for - "$dest$"
      search: '%original_detection_search% | search  dest = "$dest$"'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
    - name: View risk events for the last 7 days for - "$dest$"
      search: '| from datamodel Risk.All_Risk | search normalized_risk_object IN ("$dest$") starthoursago=168  | stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime values(search_name) as "Search Name" values(risk_message) as "Risk Message" values(analyticstories) as "Analytic Stories" values(annotations._all) as "Annotations" values(annotations.mitre_attack.mitre_tactic) as "ATT&CK Tactics" by normalized_risk_object | `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` | `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`'
      earliest_offset: $info_min_time$
      latest_offset: $info_max_time$
rba:
    message: A certificate was issued to $dest$.
    risk_objects:
        - field: dest
          type: system
          score: 20
    threat_objects: []
tags:
    analytic_story:
        - Windows Certificate Services
    asset_type: Endpoint
    mitre_attack_id:
        - T1649
    product:
        - Splunk Enterprise
        - Splunk Enterprise Security
        - Splunk Cloud
    security_domain: endpoint
tests:
    - name: True Positive Test
      attack_data:
        - data: https://media.githubusercontent.com/media/splunk/attack_data/master/datasets/attack_techniques/T1649/atomic_red_team/4887_windows-security.log
          source: XmlWinEventLog:Security
          sourcetype: XmlWinEventLog