Windows Scheduled Task Process Run from Suspicious File Locations

Alerts on Windows Task Scheduler process creation when the executed program runs from temp, downloads, desktop, or public-writable paths.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2

Product: windows
Service: taskscheduler
Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2022-12-05
Updated: 2026-07-31

Analysis Detection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1053.005Scheduled Task
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 flags Windows Scheduled Task process executions when the task’s program path contains common user-writable or temporary directories (for example, C:\Windows\Temp\, C:\Temp\, and user profile AppData\Local\Temp\). Attackers often abuse Task Scheduler to persistently execute malicious binaries or scripts from locations that are easier to stage or hide. It relies on Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler operational telemetry for the scheduled task process creation event (EventID 129) and matches the program path substrings.

Reporting behind it

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Windows Scheduled Task Process Run from Suspicious File Locations

Pivot detection · T1053.005 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

windows-scheduled-task-execution-from-suspicious-paths-424273ea

title: Windows Scheduled Task Process Run from Suspicious File Locations
id: 55bbe7f1-f95d-492e-a666-1b3133a8dfe9
status: test
description: This rule flags Windows Scheduled Task process executions when the task’s program path contains common user-writable or temporary directories (for example, C:\Windows\Temp\, C:\Temp\, and user profile AppData\Local\Temp\). Attackers often abuse Task Scheduler to persistently execute malicious binaries or scripts from locations that are easier to stage or hide. It relies on Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler operational telemetry for the scheduled task process creation event (EventID 129) and matches the program path substrings.
references:
  - Internal Research
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/builtin/taskscheduler/win_taskscheduler_execution_from_susp_locations.yml
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team
date: 2022-12-05
modified: 2023-02-07
tags:
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.execution
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.t1053.005
logsource:
  product: windows
  service: taskscheduler
  definition: 'Requirements: The "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational" is disabled by default and needs to be enabled in order for this detection to trigger'
detection:
  selection:
    EventID: 129
    Path|contains:
      - C:\Windows\Temp\
      - \AppData\Local\Temp\
      - \Desktop\
      - \Downloads\
      - \Users\Public\
      - C:\Temp\
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unknown
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 424273ea-7cf8-43a6-b712-375f925e481f
    type: derived

Convert

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