Detection of Malicious Kubernetes CronJob Scheduling

ID: DET0206
Domains: Enterprise
Analytics: AN0582
Version: 1.0
Created: 21 October 2025
Last Modified: 21 October 2025

Analytics

AN0582

Detects abuse of container orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes) where adversaries create CronJobs to maintain persistence or execute malicious Jobs across the cluster.

Log Sources
Data Component Name Channel
Scheduled Job Creation (DC0001) kubernetes:apiserver verb=create, resource=cronjobs, group=batch
Container Creation (DC0072) kubernetes:events container start/stop activity via Docker, containerd, or CRI-O
Network Traffic Content (DC0085) container:proxy outbound/inbound network activity from spawned pods
Mutable Elements
Field Description
NamespaceScope Kubernetes namespace the job is deployed to—scoping this to known trusted namespaces may reduce noise.
ImageRepository The container image registry or repository the job pulls from—can be filtered by trusted registries.
ScheduleWindow Time window or frequency of CronJob execution (e.g., ‘@hourly’)—jobs running at odd hours may be suspicious.
ExecutionCommand The command or entrypoint executed by the Job—unexpected shell commands or interpreters may warrant inspection.