Rare Scheduled Task RPC activity

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	Requires one of the following data sources: Palo Alto Networks Firewall EAL Logs OR XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH)
Detector Tags	NDR Lateral Movement Analytics
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services (T1021), Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)
Severity	Informational

Description

The endpoint performed abnormal Scheduled Task RPC activity to a remote host.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers may attempt to gain persistence or move laterally over the network by executing code on remote hosts using scheduled tasks.
• The ITaskSchedulerService RPC interface is used to query and manage services on a local or remote host.

Investigative actions

• Review the action of the created scheduled task on the remote host.
• Correlate the RPC call from the source host and understand which software initiated it.* Verify that this isn't IT activity.

Variations

Rare remote task registration and creation via Scheduled Task RPC interface

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services (T1021), Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)
Severity	Medium

Description

The endpoint performed abnormal task registration and creation via Scheduled Task RPC interface to a remote host.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers may attempt to gain persistence or move laterally over the network by executing code on remote hosts using scheduled tasks.
• The ITaskSchedulerService RPC interface is used to query and manage services on a local or remote host.

Investigative actions

• Review the action of the created scheduled task on the remote host.
• Correlate the RPC call from the source host and understand which software initiated it.* Verify that this isn't IT activity.

Rare remote task creation via Scheduled Task RPC interface

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services (T1021), Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)
Severity	Medium

Description

The endpoint performed abnormal task registration or creation via Scheduled Task RPC interface to a remote host.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers may attempt to gain persistence or move laterally over the network by executing code on remote hosts using scheduled tasks.
• The ITaskSchedulerService RPC interface is used to query and manage services on a local or remote host.

Investigative actions

• Review the action of the created scheduled task on the remote host.
• Correlate the RPC call from the source host and understand which software initiated it.* Verify that this isn't IT activity.

Rare Scheduled Task RPC activity

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services (T1021), Scheduled Task/Job (T1053)
Severity	Low

Description

The endpoint performed abnormal Scheduled Task RPC activity to a remote host.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers may attempt to gain persistence or move laterally over the network by executing code on remote hosts using scheduled tasks.
• The ITaskSchedulerService RPC interface is used to query and manage services on a local or remote host.

Investigative actions

• Review the action of the created scheduled task on the remote host.
• Correlate the RPC call from the source host and understand which software initiated it.* Verify that this isn't IT activity.