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Suspicious Execution via Scheduled Task

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Suspicious Execution via Scheduled Task

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Identifies execution of a suspicious program via scheduled tasks by looking at process lineage and command line usage.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Persistence

Version: 7 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Legitimate scheduled tasks running third party software.

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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process where event.type == "start" and /* Schedule service
cmdline on Win10+ */ process.parent.name : "svchost.exe" and
process.parent.args : "Schedule" and /* add suspicious programs
here */ process.pe.original_file_name in
( "cscript.exe",
"wscript.exe", "PowerShell.EXE",
"Cmd.Exe", "MSHTA.EXE",
"RUNDLL32.EXE", "REGSVR32.EXE",
"MSBuild.exe", "InstallUtil.exe",
"RegAsm.exe", "RegSvcs.exe",
"msxsl.exe", "CONTROL.EXE",
"EXPLORER.EXE",
"Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe",
"msiexec.exe" ) and /* add
suspicious paths here */ process.args : ( "C:\\Users\\*",
"C:\\ProgramData\\*", "C:\\Windows\\Temp\\*",
"C:\\Windows\\Tasks\\*", "C:\\PerfLogs\\*",
"C:\\Intel\\*", "C:\\Windows\\Debug\\*", "C:\\HP\\*")

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Persistence
- ID: TA0003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0003/
Technique:
- Name: Scheduled Task/Job
- ID: T1053
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1053/

Rule version history

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Version 7 (8.4.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

process where event.type == "start" and /* Schedule service
cmdline on Win10+ */ process.parent.name : "svchost.exe" and
process.parent.args : "Schedule" and /* add suspicious programs
here */ process.pe.original_file_name in
( "cscript.exe",
"wscript.exe", "PowerShell.EXE",
"Cmd.Exe", "MSHTA.EXE",
"RUNDLL32.EXE", "REGSVR32.EXE",
"MSBuild.exe", "InstallUtil.exe",
"RegAsm.exe", "RegSvcs.exe",
"msxsl.exe", "CONTROL.EXE",
"EXPLORER.EXE",
"Microsoft.Workflow.Compiler.exe",
"msiexec.exe" ) and /* add
suspicious paths here */ process.args : ( "C:\\Users\\*",
"C:\\ProgramData\\*", "C:\\Windows\\Temp\\*",
"C:\\Windows\\Tasks\\*", "C:\\PerfLogs\\*",
"C:\\Intel\\*", "C:\\Windows\\Debug\\*", "C:\\HP\\*")

Version 5 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (7.16.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 3 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

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