Elastic Security Detection Rules

Temporarily Scheduled Task Creation

Last updated 3 days ago on 2025-11-14
Created 3 years ago on 2022-08-29

About

Indicates the creation and deletion of a scheduled task within a short time interval. Adversaries can use these to proxy malicious execution via the schedule service and perform clean up.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceTactic: ExecutionData Source: Windows Security Event LogsLanguage: eql
Severity
medium
Risk Score
47
MITRE ATT&CK™

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)(opens in a new tab or window)

Execution (TA0002)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Legitimate scheduled tasks may be created during installation of new software.
License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

system(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by winlog.computer_name, winlog.event_data.TaskName with maxspan=5m
   [iam where host.os.type == "windows" and event.action == "scheduled-task-created" and not user.name : "*$"]
   [iam where host.os.type == "windows" and event.action == "scheduled-task-deleted" and not user.name : "*$"]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Temporarily Scheduled Task Creation in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).