Suspicious Remote Scheduled Task Creation via schtasks for Lateral Movement (via process_creation)

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 schtasks.exe creating a task against a remote system with a run-as account, the remote task scheduling method used during SUNBURST lateral movement to execute payloads on other hosts. Remote schtasks create with a system run level is rare in normal administration. Detecting it exposes lateral tool execution across the environment.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious Remote Scheduled Task Creation via schtasks for Lateral Movement (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.

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