Suspicious High Frequency Scheduled Task Creation via Schtasks

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Priv Esc

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
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a scheduled task configured to run every few minutes which the TorNet backdoor uses to repeatedly relaunch its loader under a randomized task name. Minute interval recurring tasks are unusual for legitimate software and indicate persistence with frequent re execution.

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 Scheduled Persistent Task with SYSTEM Privileges Creation (via process_creation)

Malicious Interactive Privileged Shell Triggered by Schedule Task - Deprecated (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation with Command Line (via process_creation)

Suspicious High Frequency Scheduled Task Creation via Schtasks

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 →