$re = '/^(?:(?!-{3,}(?:BEGIN|END) CERTIFICATE)[\s\S])*(-{3,}BEGIN CERTIFICATE(?:(?!-{3,}BEGIN CERTIFICATE)[\s\S])*?-{3,}END CERTIFICATE-{3,})\s*$/';
$str = '-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
ABCDMIIBIjANBgkqhkiG9w0BAQEFAAOCAQ8AMIIBCgKCAQEAryQICCl6NZ5gDKrnSztO3Hy8PEUcuyvg/ikC+VcIo2SFFSf18a3IMYldIugqqqZCs4/4uVW3sbdLs/6PfgdX7O9D22ZiFWHPYA2k2N744MNiCD1UE+tJyllUhSblK48bn+v1oZHCM0nYQ2NqUkvSj+hwUU3RiWl7x3D2s9wSdNt7XUtW05a/FXehsPSiJfKvHJJnGOX0BgTvkLnkAOTdOrUZ/wK69Dzu4IvrN4vs9Nes8vbwPa/ddZEzGR0cQMt0JBkhk9kU/qwqUseP1QRJ5I1jR4g8aYPL/ke9K35PxZWuDp3U0UPAZ3PjFAh+5T+fc7gzCs9dPzSHloruU+glFQIDAQAB
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php