Suspicious High Frequency Scheduled Task Creation via Schtasks

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-16
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Priv Esc
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Defense Evasion

  5. Cred Access

  6. Discovery

  7. Lateral Movement

  8. Collection

  9. C2

  10. Exfiltration

  11. 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.

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Suspicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as Palo Alto Cortex Services
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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.