Suspicious Scheduled Task Running VBScript on Short Recurring Interval via Command Line

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-20
Updated
2026-09-20

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 VBScript on a per-minute recurring schedule, a persistence pattern used by the ProjFUD injector to relaunch AsyncRAT every couple of minutes. Legitimate tasks rarely fire a script this frequently. Detecting the registration exposes aggressive persistence and beaconing cadence.

Related detections9 linkedT1053.005 — drag to rearrange
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Malicious GHOSTENGINE Scheduled Task Creation Masquerading as Updater via process_creation
Suspicious Scheduled Task Masquerading as Office Update via Process Creation
Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation from XML Definition via Process Creation
Suspicious Scheduled Task Named WindowsHelper (via process_creation)
Scheduled Task Masquerading as Microsoft Wininet Config
Suspicious Scheduled Task Running VBScript on Short Recurring Interval via Command Line
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.