Certipy and PowerSploit are both well-known tools in the Active Directory security and penetration-testing ecosystem, but they were designed for substantially different purposes. Certipy specializes in Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS), whereas PowerSploit is a broad collection of PowerShell modules covering reconnaissance, privilege escalation, code execution, persistence, and other penetration-testing activities.
This comparison examines Certipy vs PowerSploit across features, performance, compatibility, requirements, use cases, advantages, and limitations. Because the projects target different technical areas, the comparison is best understood as a study of their respective capabilities rather than a direct substitute-for-substitute evaluation.
Certipy vs PowerSploit at a Glance
| Category | Certipy | PowerSploit |
| Primary focus | Active Directory Certificate Services (AD CS) assessment | Broad PowerShell-based penetration testing and red-team operations |
| Main technology | Python, LDAP, RPC, certificates, Kerberos/PKI | PowerShell |
| Scope | Specialized | Broad, multi-module toolkit |
| AD CS capabilities | Extensive | Limited/not its primary focus |
| Active Directory reconnaissance | AD CS-oriented | Extensive domain and host reconnaissance |
| Privilege escalation | AD CS-related escalation paths | Windows and domain privilege-escalation techniques |
| Certificate operations | Extensive | Not a core capability |
| Code execution | Supporting functionality | Extensive |
| Persistence | Certificate and AD-related scenarios | Multiple Windows/PowerShell persistence mechanisms |
| Operating-system focus | Cross-platform tooling for AD environments | Primarily Windows PowerShell environments |
| Installation model | Python package/tooling | PowerShell module or individual scripts |
| Maintenance status | Actively developed; current releases include Certipy 5.x | Archived on GitHub since January 2021 |
| Best suited to | AD CS-focused security assessments | Broad Windows/PowerShell penetration testing |
What Is Certipy?
Certipy is a command-line toolkit specifically built for enumerating and assessing Active Directory Certificate Services. Its current documentation describes support for identifying and exploiting known AD CS escalation paths from ESC1 through ESC17, along with certificate requests, authentication, relay scenarios, certificate management, and related Active Directory functionality.
The tool uses a modular command structure. Its current command reference includes functions for AD CS discovery, certificate requests, certificate management, authentication, CA management, certificate forging, relay, shadow credentials, and template operations.
Key Certipy Features
- AD CS enumeration for certificate authorities, certificate templates, and related configuration.
- Misconfiguration detection for certificate-based privilege-escalation paths.
- Certificate requests through supported enrollment mechanisms.
- Certificate-based authentication for supported Active Directory workflows.
- Certificate and private-key management.
- Certificate authority operations and template-related functionality.
- NTLM relay to AD CS in supported scenarios.
- Shadow Credentials functionality.
- Certificate forging capabilities where the required CA material is available.
- Structured output, including text, JSON, and CSV options for discovery results.
Certipy’s current development has also focused on compatibility with hardened environments, including LDAP signing, LDAPS channel binding, HTTPS channel binding, and related authentication changes.
What Is PowerSploit?
PowerSploit is a collection of Microsoft PowerShell modules intended to support penetration testers and red-team operators across different phases of an engagement. Its module manifest describes functionality spanning antivirus-bypass research, code execution, exfiltration, reconnaissance, script modification, persistence, and privilege escalation.
Unlike Certipy, PowerSploit is not centered on one Active Directory technology. Its modules cover a much broader range of Windows security-testing tasks.
Important components include:
- PowerView: Domain and network reconnaissance.
- PowerUp: Windows privilege-escalation auditing.
- CodeExecution: Various code-execution techniques.
- Exfiltration: Functions associated with data and credential-access testing.
- Persistence: Persistence-related assessment capabilities.
- ScriptModification: PowerShell script manipulation and related functionality.
- Recon: Windows and Active Directory reconnaissance.
- Mayhem: Additional testing functionality.
PowerView, for example, provides domain enumeration, trust discovery, computer and user enumeration, ACL analysis, session discovery, and other network-awareness functions.
PowerUp focuses on identifying common Windows privilege-escalation vectors involving misconfigured services, permissions, registry settings, and related weaknesses.
Core Difference: Specialized AD CS vs Broad PowerShell Toolkit
The fundamental difference between the two tools is scope.
Certipy is deliberately specialized around AD CS and certificate-based identity in Active Directory. Its functionality is designed to answer questions such as:
- What certificate authorities exist?
- Which templates are enabled?
- Which templates have potentially dangerous configurations?
- What certificate-based authentication paths are available?
- Are certificate-related escalation conditions present?
PowerSploit instead provides a collection of independent PowerShell capabilities covering many stages of a Windows security assessment.
Its questions are broader:
- What hosts and users exist?
- What domain relationships and permissions are present?
- Which local privilege-escalation opportunities exist?
- What services, processes, files, or registry settings may be exploitable?
- What PowerShell-based techniques can be evaluated during an authorized assessment?
As a result, the tools overlap in the broad area of Active Directory security but have relatively little direct functional equivalence.
Feature Comparison
Active Directory Reconnaissance
PowerSploit has extensive general-purpose Active Directory reconnaissance through PowerView. Its documented functions include domain, forest, trust, computer, user, group, OU, site, subnet, session, share, and ACL enumeration.
Certipy’s reconnaissance is much narrower but deeper in the AD CS domain. Its find functionality focuses on certificate authorities, certificate templates, permissions, and potential certificate-related vulnerabilities.
Difference: PowerSploit provides broader domain situational awareness, while Certipy provides deeper visibility into AD CS.
Privilege Escalation
Certipy specializes in privilege escalation through AD CS misconfigurations and certificate-based attack paths. Its documentation covers ESC1 through ESC17, although some techniques require contextual analysis or post-exploitation conditions beyond direct automated detection.
PowerSploit approaches privilege escalation from a much wider Windows perspective. PowerUp, for example, audits common misconfigurations involving services, permissions, executable paths, registry settings, and scheduled-task-related weaknesses.
The distinction is therefore between specialized certificate-based escalation and broader Windows privilege-escalation assessment.
Code Execution and Post-Exploitation
PowerSploit has substantially broader coverage in this area. Its module collection includes dedicated code-execution functionality as well as functions related to process, token, DLL, WMI, and other Windows operations.
Certipy is not designed as a general post-exploitation framework. Its execution-related capabilities primarily support workflows associated with Active Directory certificates and authentication.
Certificate Security
This is the clearest area of differentiation.
Certipy provides dedicated functionality for:
- Certificate-template enumeration
- Certificate requests
- Certificate authentication
- CA management
- Certificate manipulation
- Certificate forging
- AD CS relay scenarios
- Shadow Credentials
These capabilities are directly represented in its current command reference.
PowerSploit does not provide a comparable AD CS-focused toolkit. Its broad Windows and Active Directory modules were designed for a different set of assessment objectives.
Performance Considerations
A direct speed comparison between Certipy and PowerSploit is difficult because they perform different types of work.
Certipy Performance
Certipy operations can involve LDAP queries, RPC communication, certificate-authority interaction, template analysis, and authentication. Performance can therefore vary with:
- Domain size
- Number of certificate templates
- Number of certificate authorities
- Network latency
- Authentication method
- AD CS configuration
- Specific Certipy command being executed
The current project has undergone significant refactoring and compatibility work, including improvements to its HTTP and LDAP handling.
PowerSploit Performance
PowerSploit performance depends heavily on the individual PowerShell module and the number of hosts or objects being queried.
For example, broad PowerView enumeration can generate significantly more network activity than a focused local audit. Functions that enumerate multiple machines may also take longer as the target environment grows. The documentation notes progress-oriented output for several multi-host reconnaissance functions.
PowerShell startup overhead and the age of some modules can also influence practical performance on modern systems.
Overall: Neither tool has a meaningful universal performance advantage because their workloads are fundamentally different.
Compatibility and Requirements
Certipy Requirements
Certipy is Python-based and is distributed as the certipy-ad package. Its command-line interface is designed to interact with Active Directory services such as LDAP and RPC.
Typical requirements include:
- A supported Python environment
- Certipy and its dependencies
- Network connectivity to relevant AD services
- Appropriate credentials or authentication material
- Access to an AD CS deployment for AD CS-specific functionality
Current Certipy development also addresses modern AD security controls such as LDAP signing and channel binding, which can affect compatibility and assessment behavior.
PowerSploit Requirements
PowerSploit was designed around Windows PowerShell. Its module manifest specifies a minimum PowerShell version of 2.0, reflecting the project’s historical compatibility target.
Typical requirements include:
- Windows PowerShell
- Access to the PowerSploit module files
- Appropriate privileges for individual functions
- A Windows environment for most functionality
- Additional dependencies where a particular module requires them
The project documentation describes installing modules by placing them in a PowerShell module path and then importing them.
Maintenance and Project Status
One of the most significant differences in 2026 is project activity.
Certipy remains actively developed. Its repository currently contains recent releases and development activity, including Certipy 5.x updates and ongoing pull requests.
PowerSploit is archived. The official GitHub repository was archived on January 21, 2021 and is now read-only. Its latest listed release is PowerSploit v3.0.0.
This distinction matters when evaluating compatibility with modern Windows and Active Directory environments. PowerSploit’s historical compatibility is an important part of its design, but its archived status means users should not expect the original project to receive current upstream maintenance.
Common Use Cases
Certipy Use Cases
Certipy is commonly relevant to:
- AD CS security assessments
- Certificate-template audits
- Enterprise CA reviews
- AD CS privilege-escalation research
- Certificate authentication assessments
- Certificate-related persistence investigations
- Red-team exercises involving Microsoft PKI
- Defensive validation of certificate infrastructure
The project documentation specifically emphasizes identifying and assessing AD CS misconfigurations and ESC attack paths.
PowerSploit Use Cases
PowerSploit is more commonly associated with:
- Windows penetration testing
- Active Directory reconnaissance
- Local privilege-escalation auditing
- Domain trust and ACL analysis
- Windows post-exploitation research
- PowerShell-based security testing
- Code-execution research
- Persistence assessments
- Red-team tradecraft research
Its module manifest and documentation demonstrate this broad coverage across reconnaissance, privilege escalation, code execution, persistence, and related areas.
Pros and Limitations
Certipy Pros
- Highly specialized AD CS functionality
- Comprehensive certificate-authority and template enumeration
- Support for numerous AD CS escalation paths
- Certificate request and authentication capabilities
- Structured enumeration output
- Ongoing development and maintenance
- Increasing support for hardened AD environments
Certipy Limitations
- Its usefulness is greatest when AD CS is deployed and in scope.
- The breadth of AD CS concepts can create a learning curve.
- Some findings require broader Active Directory context to understand their actual impact.
- Certain techniques depend on permissions, existing credentials, certificate material, or other environmental conditions.
- It is not intended to replace a general-purpose Windows post-exploitation toolkit.
PowerSploit Pros
- Very broad range of Windows security-testing functions
- Extensive Active Directory reconnaissance capabilities
- Modular PowerShell architecture
- Individual components can be used independently
- Historically compatible with older Windows PowerShell environments
- Large body of documentation and community knowledge
PowerSploit Limitations
- The official repository has been archived since 2021.
- It was designed around an older Windows PowerShell ecosystem.
- Some techniques may behave differently on modern, hardened Windows systems.
- Its broad collection can make it less focused for specialized tasks.
- Security controls such as PowerShell logging, application control, endpoint protection, and modern Windows defenses can affect execution.
- It does not provide the dedicated AD CS assessment depth found in Certipy.
Certipy vs PowerSploit: Capability Matrix
| Assessment Requirement | Certipy | PowerSploit |
| AD CS enumeration | Extensive | Limited |
| Certificate-template analysis | Extensive | Not a core feature |
| Certificate requests | Yes | Not a core feature |
| Certificate authentication | Yes | Not a core feature |
| AD CS-specific escalation analysis | Extensive | No dedicated coverage |
| General AD enumeration | Focused on AD CS | Extensive |
| Domain trust enumeration | Limited/focused | Extensive |
| Windows privilege-escalation auditing | Specialized around AD CS | Broad |
| PowerShell-based testing | No | Core technology |
| Code-execution research | Limited/specialized | Extensive |
| Persistence assessment | Certificate/AD-focused | Broad |
| Cross-platform operation | More suitable for cross-platform assessment hosts | Primarily Windows-focused |
| Current upstream development | Active | Archived |
Choosing Between the Two for Different Assessment Goals
The distinction becomes clearer when the assessment objective is defined first.
For an AD CS-focused review, the relevant questions concern certificate authorities, templates, enrollment permissions, certificate authentication, and certificate-related attack paths. Certipy is explicitly built around those areas.
For a broader Windows or Active Directory penetration test, PowerSploit’s collection of reconnaissance, privilege-escalation, code-execution, persistence, and other PowerShell modules represents a much wider functional scope.
The two can therefore appear in different phases or scopes of a larger security assessment without performing the same role.
Final Comparison
Certipy and PowerSploit represent two different approaches to Active Directory security testing. Certipy is a specialized AD CS toolkit, with its functionality concentrated on certificate infrastructure, certificate authentication, and AD CS-related security weaknesses. PowerSploit is a broad PowerShell-based collection, offering tools for reconnaissance, privilege escalation, code execution, persistence, and other Windows penetration-testing activities.
Their performance characteristics, requirements, and compatibility profiles reflect those different objectives. Certipy is closely tied to AD CS and modern Active Directory security mechanisms, while PowerSploit reflects a broader and older Windows PowerShell security-testing model.