Scheduled Task Injection

Name: AI Agent Threat Matrix
Creator: OpenA2A
License: https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Inject malicious scheduled tasks or heartbeat handlers for persistent execution

Tactic

Persistence · Stage 6

Establish persistent access surviving restarts and session changes

Attack class

HEARTBEAT-RCE

Exploiting scheduled task or heartbeat mechanisms to achieve persistent code execution

Evidence grade

Observed

Confirmed in real-world production systems or internet-wide exposure assessments.

DVAA validation

heartbeat injection

Reproductions in Damn Vulnerable AI Agent, the OpenA2A intentionally-broken agent for kill-chain validation.

Honeypot

AgentPwn coverage

Out of scope

Not observable via content-side honeypot interaction. HackMyAgent or DVAA cover this where applicable.

Scheduled-task injection needs host cron/scheduler context the honeypot never sees.

Detect

Live7 live · 0 queued

HEARTBEAT-001HEARTBEAT-002HEARTBEAT-003HEARTBEAT-004HEARTBEAT-005HEARTBEAT-006HEARTBEAT-007

npx hackmyagent secure --ciLive = implemented in hackmyagent; queued = declared

Defend

Live4 live · 0 queued

Live = documented at oasb.ai; queued = declared

Reference

AI Agent Threat Matrix T-6005 (Scheduled Task Injection). OpenA2A, 2026. https://threats.opena2a.org/techniques/T-6005