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detecting-malicious-scheduled-tasks-with-sysmon

Detect malicious scheduled task creation and modification using Sysmon Event IDs 1 (Process Create for schtasks.exe), 11 (File Create for task XML), and Windows Security Event 4698/4702. The analyst correlates task creation with suspicious parent processes, public directory paths, and encoded command arguments to identify persistence and lateral movement via scheduled tasks. Activates for requests involving scheduled task detection, Sysmon persistence hunting, or T1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job analysis.

Published by mukul975 ↗mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

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Use detecting-malicious-scheduled-tasks-with-sysmon to draft SIEM detection rules and hunting queries for scheduled-task abuse in [authorized Windows environment], using Sysmon and Windows Security telemetry.

Required inputs

[authorized Windows environment]

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SKILL.md

name: detecting-malicious-scheduled-tasks-with-sysmondescription: 'Detect malicious scheduled task creation and modification using Sysmon  Event IDs 1 (Process Create for schtasks.exe), 11 (File Create for task XML), and  Windows Security Event 4698/4702. The analyst correlates task creation with suspicious  parent processes, public directory paths, and encoded command arguments to identify  persistence and lateral movement via scheduled tasks. Activates for requests involving  scheduled task detection, Sysmon persistence hunting, or T1053.005 Scheduled Task/Job  analysis.  'domain: cybersecuritysubdomain: threat-huntingtags: - sysmon- scheduled-tasks- persistence- detection- threat-hunting- windows-securityversion: '1.0'author: mahipallicense: Apache-2.0d3fend_techniques: - Execution Isolation- Process Termination- Hardware-based Process Isolation- Platform Monitoring- Process Suspensionnist_csf: - DE.CM-01- DE.AE-02- DE.AE-07- ID.RA-05mitre_attack: - T1046- T1057- T1082- T1083- T1021

Detecting Malicious Scheduled Tasks with Sysmon

Overview

Adversaries abuse Windows Task Scheduler (schtasks.exe, at.exe) for persistence (T1053.005) and lateral movement. Sysmon Event ID 1 captures schtasks.exe process creation with full command-line arguments, while Event ID 11 captures task XML files written to C:\Windows\System32\Tasks. Windows Security Event 4698 logs task registration details. This skill covers building detection rules that correlate these events to identify malicious scheduled tasks created from suspicious paths, with encoded payloads, or targeting remote systems.

When to Use

When investigating security incidents that require detecting malicious scheduled tasks with sysmon
When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

Sysmon installed with a detection-focused configuration (e.g., SwiftOnSecurity or Olaf Hartong)
Windows Event Log forwarding to SIEM (Splunk, Elastic, or Sentinel)
PowerShell ScriptBlock Logging enabled (Event 4104)

Steps

Configure Sysmon to log Event IDs 1, 11, 12, 13 with task-related filters
Build detection rules for schtasks.exe /create with suspicious arguments
Correlate Event 4698 (task registered) with Sysmon Event 1 (process create)
Hunt for tasks executing from public directories or with encoded commands
Alert on remote task creation (schtasks /s) for lateral movement detection

Expected Output

[CRITICAL] Suspicious Scheduled Task Detected
  Task: \Microsoft\Windows\UpdateCheck
  Command: powershell.exe -enc SQBuAHYAbwBrAGUALQBXAGUAYgBSAGU...
  Created By: DOMAIN\compromised_user
  Parent Process: cmd.exe (PID 4532)
  Source: \\192.168.1.50 (remote creation)
  MITRE: T1053.005 - Scheduled Task/Job