Detection rules › Sigma
Scheduled Task Creation with Curl and PowerShell Execution Combo
Detects the creation of a scheduled task using schtasks.exe, potentially in combination with curl for downloading payloads and PowerShell for executing them. This facilitates executing malicious payloads or connecting with C&C server persistently without dropping the malware sample on the host.
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | T1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task |
| Persistence | T1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task |
| Privilege Escalation | T1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task |
| Defense Evasion | T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution |
| Command & Control | T1105 Ingress Tool Transfer |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event ID | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | 1 | Process creation |
| Security-Auditing | 4688 | A new process has been created. |
Stages and Predicates
Stage 1: all of selection_img
CommandLine|contains: ' /create '
Image|endswith: '\schtasks.exe'
Stage 2: all of selection_curl
CommandLine|contains: -o
CommandLine|contains: 'curl '
CommandLine|contains: http
Stage 3: all of selection_powershell
CommandLine|contains: powershell
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.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
CommandLine | match |
|
Image | ends_with |
|
Neighbors
Stricter alternatives (narrower than this rule)
The rules below may be useful if you find the current rule is too noisy / lacks specificity.
- Suspicious Scheduled Task Creation Involving Temp Folder (adds 2 filters)