Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Launching mshta via schtasks (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Persistence
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Priv Esc
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
Defense Evasion
- T1218.005Mshta
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a scheduled task named ServiceDispatch that repeatedly launches mshta.exe. The Double-Tap campaign attributed to APT28 uses this persistence mechanism to run the HATVIBE HTA loader every few minutes. Combining a masquerading task name with the mshta living-off-the-land binary indicates malicious persistence rather than benign scheduling.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1218.005 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious mshta Execution Spawned by Scheduled Task Service Host (via process_creation)

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Suspicious Service or Task Named windowsinspectionupdate (via process_creation)

Suspicious PowerShell Spawned by mshta.exe in FakeSG Chain (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Referencing dllFake Batch Scripts (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation With WebDAV Loader Task Names (via process_creation)

Suspicious Hidden PowerShell Spawned by MSHTA for Boot Persistence (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation with ClickFix Update Recon Name (via process_creation)

Malicious HTA Payload Download and Execution via PowerShell One-Liner (via process_creation)

Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Launching mshta via schtasks (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1218.005 · 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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