o3-high vs o4-mini-low KQL Benchmark

On a Windows host, an attacker leveraged COMSVCS.DLL via rundll32.exe to dump the memory of svchost.exe into a file under the Temp directory. Review the file creation logs to determine the exact name of the dump file that was generated.

Using Windows process event logs, investigate PowerShell activity around lsass.exe memory capture. What was the name of the script file invoked to perform the dump?

An analyst suspects a user or script ran a service enumeration command on a Linux system. Review process events to find the service-listing invocation and specify the full command that was executed.

A Linux host’s Syslog shows a shell-based network discovery script ran multiple commands. One of them listed current TCP connections. Which utility was invoked?

On a Linux system, identify the script that was generated by decoding a base64 data file and then executed. What was the filename of that script?

On a Windows endpoint, look for evidence of a base64-encoded PowerShell payload execution. Which executable launched the encoded command?

Windows process creation logs show a PowerShell-driven file transfer to an FTP service. Which executable was leveraged to perform this exfiltration?

Investigate Windows process events for PowerShell activity that leverages WMI to register a scheduled task via XML import. What was the name of the XML file supplied to the RegisterByXml method?

On a Windows host, investigate process events to find when Task Manager was launched via cmd with an unusual flag. What was the full command executed?

On a Linux host, identify the process invocation that altered a user’s login shell. What was the full command used?

On a Linux endpoint, process events reveal a chain of group‐enumeration utilities executed by a single session. Which utility was used to query the system’s group database?

A Linux host executed a native utility to overwrite and then remove a temporary file in one step. Identify the name of the file that was securely deleted by this action.

While reviewing Windows process events, you observe a command that recursively deleted a folder under the temporary directory. Use the process event data to identify which process or tool executed this recursive delete.

Suspiciously, the recycle bin appears empty system-wide. Determine which command was executed on Windows to clear the system's recycle bin directory, including any switches and environment variables.

A suspicious actor appears to have removed the USN change journal on a Windows workstation. Investigate process start records to find out exactly which command was used to delete the journal. What was the full command line invoked?

A user‐space process on a Linux device invoked a shell to capture and display the system’s environment variables and path. Which exact command was used to perform this discovery?

On a Linux endpoint, a command was executed to start a proxy service commonly used for onion routing. Identify the name of the service that was launched to enable this proxy functionality.

On Windows systems, disabling RDP via the registry generates registry write events. Investigate registry event logs for modifications under the Terminal Server configuration path. What is the name of the registry value that was changed to disable Remote Desktop Protocol?

A Windows user’s registry was altered via a command-line tool to disable the lock workstation feature by adding a DWORD entry under the current user Policies\System key. Which registry value name was modified in this operation?

A Windows system shows a cmd.exe process spawn that appears to have been used for environment discovery. Review the process creation records to identify the exact command the adversary ran to enumerate environment variables.

A Windows host recorded a process that simply executes the system’s native time utility. Without spelling out the query, determine which command was run based on process creation events.

On a Linux host, an activity was recorded where the local clock and timezone were queried. Review the available process execution logs to uncover what full command was run to fetch the system time and timezone.

On a Windows system, a non-standard image downloader was used to fetch a remote file by passing a URL to a lockscreen utility. Identify the executable responsible for launching that activity.

Windows systems may be probed for their password policy settings using a native command-line tool. Determine which command was executed to list the local password policy on the target hosts.

On Windows, an elevated SecEdit.exe process was observed exporting the local security policy. Review the process execution records to identify the name of the text file where the policy was saved.