Outbound Scheduled Task Activity via PowerShell

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Outbound Scheduled Task Activity via PowerShell

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Identifies the PowerShell process loading the Task Scheduler COM DLL followed by an outbound RPC network connection within a short time period. This may indicate lateral movement or remote discovery via scheduled tasks.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

  • Domain: Endpoint
  • OS: Windows
  • Use Case: Threat Detection
  • Tactic: Execution
  • Data Source: Elastic Defend

Version: 105

Rule authors:

  • Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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sequence by host.id, process.entity_id with maxspan = 5s
 [any where host.os.type == "windows" and (event.category == "library" or (event.category == "process" and event.action : "Image loaded*")) and
  (dll.name : "taskschd.dll" or file.name : "taskschd.dll") and process.name : ("powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "powershell_ise.exe")]
 [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : ("powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "powershell_ise.exe") and destination.port == 135 and not destination.address in ("127.0.0.1", "::1")]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM