Detection rules › Sigma

Scheduled Task Creation Via Schtasks.EXE

Severity
low
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
Source
upstream

Detects the creation of scheduled tasks by user accounts via the "schtasks" utility.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ExecutionT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
PersistenceT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
Privilege EscalationT1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: selection

CommandLine|contains: ' /create '
Image|endswith: '\schtasks.exe'

Stage 2: not 1 of filter_main_system_user

or:
User|contains: AUTHORI
User|contains: AUTORI

Stage 3: not 1 of filter_optional_msoffice

Image: ['C:\Windows\SysWOW64\schtasks.exe', 'C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe']
ParentImage: ['C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe', 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe']
CommandLine|contains: 'Microsoft\Office\Office Performance Monitor'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • /create corpus 14 (sigma 14)
  • Microsoft\Office\Office Performance Monitor
Imageends_with
  • \schtasks.exe corpus 45 (sigma 45)
Imageeq
  • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\schtasks.exe corpus 2 (sigma 2)
  • C:\Windows\System32\schtasks.exe corpus 2 (sigma 2)
ParentImageeq
  • C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe
  • C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\root\integration\integrator.exe
Usermatch
  • AUTHORI corpus 16 (sigma 16)
  • AUTORI corpus 16 (sigma 16)

Neighbors

Stricter alternatives (narrower than this rule)

The rules below may be useful if you find the current rule is too noisy / lacks specificity.