Suspicious Deletion of a Scheduled Task to Cover Tracks (via process_creation)
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-06-08
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Defense EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects schtasks being used to force-delete a scheduled task, a cleanup step attackers take to remove an execution or persistence artifact after it has served its purpose. Scheduled-task deletion is an indicator-removal technique noted in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report. Detecting the deletion surfaces anti-forensic activity around task-based execution.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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