Potential Execution via VS Code Tasks
Description
Identifies creation or modification of a .vscode/tasks.json file followed by opening the current project in a short time. Threat actors distribute malicious repositories that embed autorun task configurations to phish for credentials or execute payloads when a developer opens the project in Visual Studio Code.
Query · eql
sequence with maxspan=30s
[file where event.action in ("creation", "modification") and file.name == "tasks.json" and
process.name in (
// Windows browsers
"chrome.exe", "msedge.exe", "firefox.exe", "brave.exe", "opera.exe", "vivaldi.exe",
// macOS browsers (bundle exec names)
"Google Chrome", "Google Chrome Helper", "Chromium", "Chromium Helper",
"firefox", "Firefox", "Safari", "SafariTP",
"Brave Browser", "Opera", "Vivaldi", "Arc",
// Linux browsers
"google-chrome", "google-chrome-stable", "chromium", "chromium-browser",
"firefox", "firefox-esr", "brave-browser", "opera", "vivaldi-bin",
// Windows archivers
"7z.exe", "7zFM.exe", "7zG.exe", "winrar.exe", "tar", "unzip.exe", "winscp.exe",
// macOS/Linux archivers and fetch tools
"unzip", "tar", "bsdtar", "curl", "wget",
// Version control / package managers
"git", "git.exe", "gh", "gh.exe", "npm", "npm.exe", "node", "node.exe",
"pip", "pip3", "python", "python3", "python.exe",
// Shells / script runners
"powershell.exe", "pwsh.exe", "cmd.exe", "wscript.exe", "cscript.exe",
"bash", "zsh", "sh", "fish", "dash"
) and
file.path : ("?:\\*\\.vscode\\tasks.json", "/*/.vscode/tasks.json")]
[process where event.type == "start" and event.action in ("start", "exec") and
process.name in ("code", "cursor", "Code.exe", "Cursor.exe", "codium", "VSCodium.exe", "windsurf", "Windsurf.exe") and
process.args == "."]