Potential Persistence via Cron Job
Identifies the creation or execution of a cron job. Adversaries may abuse cron jobs to perform task scheduling for initial or recurring execution of malicious code.
Detection logic
Its licence does not clear it for publishing here
Sunturai publishes a detection's own text where the licence it arrived under has been reviewed and permits it, and Elastic License 2.0 has not. The query as its source wrote it, its canonical form and the hash that pins this revision are in the workspace record.
Detection requirements
- Platform
- ContainersESXiLinuxmacOSNetwork DevicesWindows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- event_index
Known benign triggers
- Legitimate software or scripts using cron jobs for recurring tasks.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| archive.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002576.html | Only this detection cites it |
| ss64.com/osx/crontab.html | Only this detection cites it |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- b1c14366-f4f8-49a0-bcbb-51d2de8b0bb8
- Tagged by the source as
- ElasticHostLinuxmacOSPersistenceThreat Detection
Licence
- Published under
- Elastic License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 27, 2026
- Version
- 1