Suspicious Scheduled Task Persistence Running a Batch File at Logon

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-10-09
Updated
2026-10-09

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 that runs a batch script at user logon with limited run level. The Stan Ghouls campaign delivering NetSupport RAT registered an ONLOGON task pointing at run.bat to survive reboots as reported by Kaspersky. Attackers abuse schtasks logon persistence to relaunch their loader on every session, so this pattern surfaces early foothold establishment.

Related detections9 linkedT1053.005 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as VLC or Adobe Update
Suspicious Scheduled Task for Nightly Wake and Shutdown Automation
Suspicious Scheduled Task Running Regsvr32 with Extreme Duration by StaryDobry
Suspicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as Tpm-HASCertRetr by Careto
Suspicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as Microsoft Edge Update Machine MS
Malicious Tusk Persistence via FJ_load Scheduled Task
Malicious EastWind Persistence via schtasks DRMserver Task
Possible SocGholish Update Task Running Batch File at Highest Privileges (via process_creation)
Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation in Public Writable Directory via schtasks (via process_creation)
Suspicious Scheduled Task Persistence Running a Batch File at Logon
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.