Suspicious Scheduled Task Application Maintenance Executing Core Payload

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-30
Updated
2026-09-30

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 named Application Maintenance that launches Core.exe, the persistence mechanism observed in the AstarionRAT intrusion to relaunch the implant. The generic maintenance task name conceals execution of the attacker payload. The pairing of this task name with the Core.exe binary is a distinctive persistence indicator worth alerting on.

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Suspicious High-Frequency Scheduled Task Persistence via schtasks
Suspicious Scheduled Task Executing Binary from User-Writable Directory
Suspicious Scheduled Task Created to Run at System Startup
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Suspicious Scheduled Task Application Maintenance Executing Core Payload
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.