Windows Security 4698 — Scheduled task created

Windows Security 4698 — Scheduled task created. A scheduled task was created; TaskContent carries the task definition XML.

Source and collection

Windows Event Log: Security; archived .evtx is binary, while this fixture is an XML event export.

Configure Audit Other Object Access Events. Read with Get-WinEvent and preserve provider, event ID, version, computer and record ID.

Native example and provenance

publisher documentation example. Published example; no independent capture provenance claimed.

Original publisher / pinned upstream fixture — preformatted example 1

Removed Event Viewer tree expansion markers before XML tags; field values unchanged. Escaped the publisher-rendered TaskContent XML as XML text to restore a well-formed event export; this is a repaired documentation example.

Download the exact sample · Offline research kit

SHA-256: 877d4ff3226ac5276d2470e4171ae70b6ba4e0b18503a880d2dc1989671eda8b

<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
 <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-A5BA-3E3B0328C30D}" /> 
 <EventID>4698</EventID> 
 <Version>0</Version> 
 <Level>0</Level> 
 <Task>12804</Task> 
 <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
 <Keywords>0x8020000000000000</Keywords> 
 <TimeCreated SystemTime="2015-09-23T02:03:06.944522200Z" /> 
 <EventRecordID>344740</EventRecordID> 
 <Correlation /> 
 <Execution ProcessID="516" ThreadID="5048" /> 
 <Channel>Security</Channel> 
 <Computer>DC01.contoso.local</Computer> 
 <Security /> 
 </System>
<EventData>
 <Data Name="SubjectUserSid">S-1-5-21-3457937927-2839227994-823803824-1104</Data> 
 <Data Name="SubjectUserName">dadmin</Data> 
 <Data Name="SubjectDomainName">CONTOSO</Data> 
 <Data Name="SubjectLogonId">0x364eb</Data> 
 <Data Name="TaskName">\\Microsoft\\StartListener</Data> 
 <Data Name="TaskContent">&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-16"?&gt; &lt;Task version="1.2" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windows/2004/02/mit/task"&gt; &lt;RegistrationInfo&gt; &lt;Date&gt;2015-09-22T19:03:06.9258653&lt;/Date&gt; &lt;Author&gt;CONTOSO\\dadmin&lt;/Author&gt; &lt;/RegistrationInfo&gt; &lt;Triggers /&gt; &lt;Principals&gt; &lt;Principal id="Author"&gt; &lt;RunLevel&gt;LeastPrivilege&lt;/RunLevel&gt; &lt;UserId&gt;CONTOSO\\dadmin&lt;/UserId&gt; &lt;LogonType&gt;InteractiveToken&lt;/LogonType&gt; &lt;/Principal&gt; &lt;/Principals&gt; &lt;Settings&gt; &lt;MultipleInstancesPolicy&gt;IgnoreNew&lt;/MultipleInstancesPolicy&gt; &lt;DisallowStartIfOnBatteries&gt;true&lt;/DisallowStartIfOnBatteries&gt; &lt;StopIfGoingOnBatteries&gt;true&lt;/StopIfGoingOnBatteries&gt; &lt;AllowHardTerminate&gt;true&lt;/AllowHardTerminate&gt; &lt;StartWhenAvailable&gt;false&lt;/StartWhenAvailable&gt; &lt;RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable&gt;false&lt;/RunOnlyIfNetworkAvailable&gt; &lt;IdleSettings&gt; &lt;StopOnIdleEnd&gt;true&lt;/StopOnIdleEnd&gt; &lt;RestartOnIdle&gt;false&lt;/RestartOnIdle&gt; &lt;/IdleSettings&gt; &lt;AllowStartOnDemand&gt;true&lt;/AllowStartOnDemand&gt; &lt;Enabled&gt;true&lt;/Enabled&gt; &lt;Hidden&gt;false&lt;/Hidden&gt; &lt;RunOnlyIfIdle&gt;false&lt;/RunOnlyIfIdle&gt; &lt;WakeToRun&gt;false&lt;/WakeToRun&gt; &lt;ExecutionTimeLimit&gt;P3D&lt;/ExecutionTimeLimit&gt; &lt;Priority&gt;7&lt;/Priority&gt; &lt;/Settings&gt; &lt;Actions Context="Author"&gt; &lt;Exec&gt; &lt;Command&gt;C:\\Documents\\listener.exe&lt;/Command&gt; &lt;/Exec&gt; &lt;/Actions&gt; &lt;/Task&gt;</Data> 
 </EventData>
 </Event>

Structure and field interpretation

Observed structure in this specific sample
Field/path	Serialized type
`Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing`	XML text
`EventID`	XML text
`Version`	XML text
`Level`	XML text
`Task`	XML text
`Opcode`	XML text
`Keywords`	XML text
`TimeCreated`	XML text
`EventRecordID`	XML text
`Correlation`	XML text
`Execution`	XML text
`Channel`	XML text
`Computer`	XML text
`Security`	XML text
`SubjectUserSid`	XML text
`SubjectUserName`	XML text
`SubjectDomainName`	XML text
`SubjectLogonId`	XML text
`TaskName`	XML text
`TaskContent`	XML text

System/EventID: Event identifier within the named provider.
System/Version: Version of this event layout.
System/TimeCreated/@SystemTime: Event timestamp in UTC.
EventData: Named fields; use names, not positional array indices.
Relevant fields: TaskName, TaskContent, SubjectLogonId

Investigation uses

Review task action, principal and trigger; corroborate execution with process and scheduler events.
Compare event time with ingestion time and retain the original XML for a reviewable evidence trail.

Validation boundaries

Task registration does not prove that the task ran. Later Windows versions add fields; escaped TaskContent needs a second XML parse. This sample uses event version 0.

This sample passed byte-integrity and JSON/XML parsing checks, including the catalogue’s specified event discriminators. This is not a complete vendor-schema validation or a tested detection.

For a simulation, first parse this fixture offline, then create a separately labelled synthetic variant and test it against the intended collector in an isolated lab. Never replay public example identities or destinations into production.

Ecosystem connections

References

4698(S) A scheduled task was created. - Windows 10 | Microsoft Learn

Sample provenance is linked above. Field availability and product behavior must be checked against the deployed version.