Malicious Impacket Atexec Remote Scheduled Task Execution (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Persistence
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Priv Esc
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.002SMB/Windows Admin Shares
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the scheduled-task pattern used by Impacket atexec for remote command execution, where schtasks registers a one-off ONSTART task that runs cmd and redirects output to a temporary file for retrieval over SMB. Remote execution via scheduled tasks is a lateral-movement behavior in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report and a hallmark of hands-on-keyboard operators. Detecting this task-creation signature surfaces Impacket-driven lateral movement.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1053.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Scheduled Task Running PowerShell Every Minute (via process_creation)

Agent Tesla Persistence via Realtek Named Scheduled Task Batch

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Named test3 by Salt Typhoon

Suspicious MeshAgent Persistence via Scheduled Task MeshUserTask (via process_creation)

Malicious PureMiner Persistence Executable in AppData HResult Folder

Suspicious Kimsuky Scheduled Task Impersonating Google Update CGI (via process_creation)

Malicious Network Share Manipulation via Commandline (via process_creation)

Suspicious Number of Oustanding SMB Requests Increased (via process_creation)

Suspicious SMB Insecure Guest Authentication Activated - Native (via security)

Malicious Impacket Atexec Remote Scheduled Task Execution (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1053.005 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

Full detection rule

Unlock this rule to view and copy it

The detection logic is included with a plan. Everything else — context, mappings and implementation details — stays free on this page.

Sign in for 3 free unlocks

Signing in gives you 3 unlocks to spend on any rule in the library. No card, and they do not expire.

Also included

Unlocked rules convert on this page — to Splunk SPL or Splunk — Raw Index SPL or Microsoft Sentinel KQL or Microsoft Sentinel ASIM ASIM KQL or Microsoft Defender XDR KQL or Elastic Security KQL or Elastic Security Lucene or Elastic Security ES|QL or CrowdStrike Falcon CQL or SentinelOne PowerQuery or Palo Alto Cortex XDR XQL or Carbon Black Cloud Platform Search or Carbon Black EDR Process Search or Google Security Operations UDM Search or IBM QRadar AQL or Sumo Logic Cloud SIEM Rules expression or Rapid7 InsightIDR LEQL or Graylog Search or OpenSearch Lucene or OpenSearch PPL PPL or Grafana Loki LogQL or SQLite SQL or Zircolite SQLite — with the log-source profile the engine picked, the field map it used, and everything it could not express. Converting a rule you have unlocked costs no further credit.

See it run on a free rule →Convert your own rule →