Windows Task Scheduler

Windows Task Scheduler is a system service that allows you to execute automated tasks on a Windows computer. Tasks can be created and managed through the Task Scheduler graphical user interface or the Task Scheduler API.

Task Scheduler is commonly used to perform routine tasks on a system; however, intruders can also use it maliciously to execute code as LocalSystem. On Windows Server 2008 R2 and newer operating systems, a task history is logged to the Windows Event Log. Besides allowing you to identify failing scheduled tasks, collecting and monitoring these events can also help you to detect compromised systems early on.

Enabling Tasks History

Follow these steps to enable logging of Task Scheduler events:

Open Task Scheduler (taskschd.msc).
In the Actions pane on the right-hand side, click Enable All Tasks History.

Collecting Task Scheduler events from Windows Event Log

Task Scheduler events are logged to the Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational log. To verify that this log is enabled:

Open Event Viewer (eventvwr.msc).
Expand Applications and Services Logs > Microsoft > Windows > TaskScheduler.
Right-click on Operational and select Enable Log.

On Windows Server 2012 R2 and newer operating systems, the Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Maintenance log is also available. This log contains events related to Task Scheduler maintenance tasks. For more information, see the Microsoft documentation on Automatic maintenance.

Event IDs

The following events are logged when a task is created or deleted and can help in intrusion detection.

Table 1. Task management events
Event ID	Task Category
106	Task registered
140	Task registration updated
141	Task registration deleted
142	Task disabled

The following events identify the successful completion or failure of a task.

Table 2. Task monitoring events
Event ID	Task Category
100	Task started
101	Task start failed
102	Task completed
103	Action start failed
111	Task terminated
129	Created task process
200	Action started
201	Action completed
202	Action failed
203	Action failed to start

See Task Monitoring and Control in the Microsoft documentation for a complete list of monitoring events.

Example 1. Windows Task Scheduler operational log collection with NXLog Agent

This configuration uses the im_msvistalog input module to collect events from the Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational log. It then converts log records to JSON format by calling the to_json() procedure of the xm_json module.

nxlog.conf

<Extension json>
    Module    xm_json
</Extension>

<Input task_scheduler>
    Module    im_msvistalog
    <QueryXML>
        <QueryList>
            <Query Id='0'>
                <Select Path='Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational'>*</Select>
            </Query>
        </QueryList>
    </QueryXML>
    Exec      to_json();
</Input>

Output sample

{
  "EventTime": "2022-02-27T11:08:08.367566+01:00",
  "Hostname": "SERVER-1.example.com",
  "Keywords": "9223372036854775808",
  "LevelValue": 4,
  "EventType": "INFO",
  "SeverityValue": 2,
  "Severity": "INFO",
  "EventID": 106,
  "SourceName": "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler",
  "ProviderGuid": "{DE7B24EA-73C8-4A09-985D-5BDADCFA9017}",
  "Version": 0,
  "TaskValue": 106,
  "OpcodeValue": 0,
  "RecordNumber": 11316,
  "ExecutionProcessID": 784,
  "ExecutionThreadID": 1292,
  "Channel": "Microsoft-Windows-TaskScheduler/Operational",
  "Domain": "NT AUTHORITY",
  "AccountName": "SYSTEM",
  "UserID": "S-1-5-18",
  "AccountType": "User",
  "Message": "User \"SERVER-1\\jdoe\"  registered Task Scheduler task \"\\Malicious Task\"",
  "Category": "Task registered",
  "Opcode": "Info",
  "Level": "Information",
  "EventData.Name": "TaskRegisteredEvent",
  "TaskName": "\\Malicious Task",
  "UserContext": "SERVER-1\\jdoe",
  "EventReceivedTime": "2022-02-27T11:08:10.351190+01:00",
  "SourceModuleName": "task_scheduler",
  "SourceModuleType": "im_msvistalog"
}

Disclaimer

While we endeavor to keep the information in our guides up to date and correct, NXLog makes no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability of the content represented here. We update our screenshots and instructions on a best-effort basis.

The accurateness of the content was tested and proved to be working in our lab environment at the time of the last revision with the following software versions:

NXLog Agent version 5.6.7727
Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Standard
Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard

Last revision: 1 November 2022