Individual skill
hunting-for-suspicious-scheduled-tasks
Hunts for adversary persistence and execution via Windows scheduled tasks (T1053.005) by analyzing Security Event ID 4698 task-creation events, suspicious task properties, and unusual execution patterns from schtasks.exe/at.exe. Use after detecting schtasks or at.exe in process creation logs, during incident response to enumerate persistence on compromised hosts, or when Event ID 4698 fires for an unusual task.
skills/hunting-for-suspicious-scheduled-tasks/SKILL.md
Source commit 54a798831d2266a3ca61ce68a7acb80b81160d57
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- Yes
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- Yes
- Observed behavior
- Local scripts
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
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Repository context
- Repository stars (not skill ratings)
- 35,862
- Repository last updated
- Aug 31, 2026
- License
- Apache-2.0
Observed agent integration: No specific integration evidence. Standard SKILL.md installation does not imply verified compatibility.
- ai-agents Repository topic
- claude-code Repository topic
- cybersecurity Repository topic
- incident-response Repository topic
- mitre-attack Repository topic
- penetration-testing Repository topic
- red-team Repository topic
- security Repository topic
- cloud-security Repository topic
- malware-analysis Repository topic
- threat-hunting Declared skill tag
- scheduled-tasks Declared skill tag
- persistence Declared skill tag
- mitre-t1053-005 Declared skill tag
- windows Declared skill tag
- endpoint-detection Declared skill tag
- security Derived category
- operations Derived category
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LICENSEasset · 11,255 bytesSKILL.mdcore · 4,879 bytesassets/template.mddoc · 786 bytesreferences/api-reference.mddoc · 1,931 bytesreferences/standards.mddoc · 1,418 bytesreferences/workflows.mddoc · 1,279 bytesscripts/agent.pyruns · 6,998 bytesscripts/process.pyruns · 4,762 bytes
Read excerpt
# Hunting for Suspicious Scheduled Tasks
## When to Use
- When proactively hunting for persistence mechanisms in Windows environments
- After detecting schtasks.exe or at.exe usage in process creation logs
- When investigating malware that survives reboots and user logoffs
- During incident response to enumerate all persistence on compromised systems
- When Windows Security Event ID 4698 (Scheduled Task Created) fires for unusual tasks
## Prerequisites
- Windows Security Event ID 4698/4699/4702 (Task Created/Deleted/Updated)
- Sysmon Event ID 1 for schtasks.exe process creation with command lines