Interactive at.exe privilege escalation method

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	XDR Agent
Detector Tags	Scheduled tasks Analytics
ATT&CK Tactic	Execution (TA0002), Privilege Escalation (TA0004)
ATT&CK Technique	Scheduled Task/Job (T1053), Scheduled Task/Job: At (T1053.002)
Severity	Low

Description

Detects an interactive AT scheduled task, which may be used as a form of privilege escalation.

Attacker's Goals

Attackers may attempt to use the command to gain persistence on the endpoint using recurring tasks.

Investigative actions

Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.