At (Windows)

Adversaries may abuse the at.exe utility to perform task scheduling for initial or recurring execution of malicious code. The at utility exists as an executable within Windows for scheduling tasks at a specified time and date. Using at requires that the Task Scheduler service be running, and the user to be logged on as a member of the local Administrators group.

An adversary may use at.exe in Windows environments to execute programs at system startup or on scheduled basis for persistence. At can also be abused to conduct remote Execution as part of Lateral Movement and or to run a process under the context of a specified account (such as SYSTEM).

Note: The at.exe command line utility has been deprecated in current versions of Windows in favor of schtasks.

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