Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills hunting-for-scheduled-task-persistence
Hunt for adversary persistence via Windows Scheduled Tasks by analyzing task creation events, suspicious task
install
source · Clone the upstream repo
git clone https://github.com/mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Claude Code · Install into ~/.claude/skills/
T=$(mktemp -d) && git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills "$T" && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r "$T/skills/hunting-for-scheduled-task-persistence" ~/.claude/skills/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-hunting-for-scheduled-task-persistence && rm -rf "$T"
manifest:
skills/hunting-for-scheduled-task-persistence/SKILL.mdsource content
Hunting For Scheduled Task Persistence
When to Use
- When proactively hunting for indicators of hunting for scheduled task persistence in the environment
- After threat intelligence indicates active campaigns using these techniques
- During incident response to scope compromise related to these techniques
- When EDR or SIEM alerts trigger on related indicators
- During periodic security assessments and purple team exercises
Prerequisites
- EDR platform with process and network telemetry (CrowdStrike, MDE, SentinelOne)
- SIEM with relevant log data ingested (Splunk, Elastic, Sentinel)
- Sysmon deployed with comprehensive configuration
- Windows Security Event Log forwarding enabled
- Threat intelligence feeds for IOC correlation
Workflow
- Formulate Hypothesis: Define a testable hypothesis based on threat intelligence or ATT&CK gap analysis.
- Identify Data Sources: Determine which logs and telemetry are needed to validate or refute the hypothesis.
- Execute Queries: Run detection queries against SIEM and EDR platforms to collect relevant events.
- Analyze Results: Examine query results for anomalies, correlating across multiple data sources.
- Validate Findings: Distinguish true positives from false positives through contextual analysis.
- Correlate Activity: Link findings to broader attack chains and threat actor TTPs.
- Document and Report: Record findings, update detection rules, and recommend response actions.
Key Concepts
| Concept | Description |
|---|---|
| T1053.005 | Scheduled Task |
| T1053.003 | Cron |
| T1053.002 | At |
Tools & Systems
| Tool | Purpose |
|---|---|
| CrowdStrike Falcon | EDR telemetry and threat detection |
| Microsoft Defender for Endpoint | Advanced hunting with KQL |
| Splunk Enterprise | SIEM log analysis with SPL queries |
| Elastic Security | Detection rules and investigation timeline |
| Sysmon | Detailed Windows event monitoring |
| Velociraptor | Endpoint artifact collection and hunting |
| Sigma Rules | Cross-platform detection rule format |
Common Scenarios
- Scenario 1: Cobalt Strike persistence via schtasks creating periodic beacon
- Scenario 2: Ransomware scheduled task for re-execution after reboot
- Scenario 3: APT encoded PowerShell task running every 30 minutes
- Scenario 4: Insider task to periodically copy sensitive files
Output Format
Hunt ID: TH-HUNTIN-[DATE]-[SEQ] Technique: T1053.005 Host: [Hostname] User: [Account context] Evidence: [Log entries, process trees, network data] Risk Level: [Critical/High/Medium/Low] Confidence: [High/Medium/Low] Recommended Action: [Containment, investigation, monitoring]