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Description

The following analytic is designed to detect when a Windows Scheduled Task is executed on demand via shell or command line. Adversaries often force the execution of their created Scheduled Tasks for persistent access or lateral movement within a compromised machine. This analytic is driven by process-related data, specifically process name, parent process, and command-line executions, sourced from endpoint logs. The search criteria focus on 'schtasks.exe' with an associated 'run' command.

  • Type: TTP
  • Product: Splunk Enterprise, Splunk Enterprise Security, Splunk Cloud
  • Datamodel: Endpoint
  • Last Updated: 2023-04-14
  • Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
  • ID: bb37061e-af1f-11eb-a159-acde48001122

Annotations

ATT&CK

ATT&CK

ID Technique Tactic
T1053 Scheduled Task/Job Execution, Persistence, Privilege Escalation
Kill Chain Phase
  • Installation
  • Exploitation
NIST
  • DE.CM
CIS20
  • CIS 10
CVE 


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| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` values(Processes.process) as process values(Processes.process_id) as process_id count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime  from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where Processes.process_name = "schtasks.exe" Processes.process = "*/run*" by Processes.process_name Processes.parent_process_name Processes.dest Processes.user 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `schtasks_run_task_on_demand_filter`

Macros

The SPL above uses the following Macros:

:information_source: schtasks_run_task_on_demand_filter is a empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Required fields

List of fields required to use this analytic.

  • _time
  • Processes.process
  • Processes.process_id
  • Processes.process_name
  • Processes.parent_process_name
  • Processes.dest
  • Processes.user

How To Implement

The detection is based on data that originates from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents. These agents are designed to provide security-related telemetry from the endpoints where the agent is installed. To implement this search, you must ingest logs that contain the process GUID, process name, and parent process. Additionally, you must ingest complete command-line executions. These logs must be processed using the appropriate Splunk Technology Add-ons that are specific to the EDR product. The logs must also be mapped to the Processes node of the Endpoint data model. Use the Splunk Common Information Model (CIM) to normalize the field names and speed up the data modeling process.

Known False Positives

Bear in mind, administrators debugging Scheduled Task entries may trigger this analytic, necessitating fine-tuning and filtering to distinguish between legitimate and potentially malicious use of 'schtasks.exe'.

Associated Analytic Story

RBA

Risk Score Impact Confidence Message
48.0 60 80 A "on demand" execution of schedule task process $process_name$ using commandline $process$ in host $dest$

:information_source: The Risk Score is calculated by the following formula: Risk Score = (Impact * Confidence/100). Initial Confidence and Impact is set by the analytic author.

Reference

Test Dataset

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

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