Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation in Public Writable Directory via schtasks (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
- T1059.001PowerShell
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 being launched by cmd or PowerShell to create a scheduled task that points at a payload located in a world-writable directory such as Users Public, PerfLogs or ProgramData. This pattern is used by SocGholish to persist a recurring task that executes staged tooling, indicating establishment of scheduled-task persistence.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1053.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Scheduled Task Executing Payload from AppData

Suspicious Scheduled Task Running PowerShell Every Minute (via process_creation)

Scheduled Task Creating Per-Minute Hidden PowerShell Execution

Windows Process Creation: schtasks.exe Creating Scheduled Task Launching Registry-Stored PowerShell Payload

Windows Task Scheduler persistence using svchost-launched PowerShell with hidden/Bypass flags

Windows schtasks.exe Create Executes File from AppData\Local

Windows schtasks Creates Registry-Backed Base64 PowerShell Payload via Encoded Command

Windows ChromeLoader Execution via Scheduled Task and Hidden PowerShell Launch

Windows process command lines matching May 2020 Turla ComRAT command patterns

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation in Public Writable Directory via schtasks (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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