Exam CS0-003 topic 1 question 257 discussion

The fact that "UpdateService" is the only task running under a user account (PROD\sam) and located in a suspicious directory (C:\Users\sam\AppData\Roaming\Temp\taskhw.exe), the first action the hunter should perform is to acquire a copy of taskhw.exe from the impacted host. The first step should be to acquire a copy of taskhw.exe from the impacted host for analysis. This will allow the threat hunter to determine if the file is malicious and understand its behavior, which is crucial for planning further actions.

The first step should be to perform a public search for malware reports on taskhw.exe, as this file is suspicious for several reasons: it is located in a non-standard path, it has a high CPU usage, it is signed by an unknown entity, and it is only present on one host. A public search can help to determine if this file is a known malware or a legitimate program. If it is malware, the hunter can then take appropriate actions to remove it and prevent further damage. The other options are either premature or ineffective, as they do not provide enough information to assess the threat level of taskhw.exe. References: Cybersecurity Analyst+ - CompTIA, taskhw.exe Windows process - What is it? - file.net, Taskhostw.exe - What Is Taskhostw.exe & Is It Malware? - MalwareTips Forums

The name, path and user of the task are more than enough to determine that this is most likely a malware file. Doing a public search of the name of the file before acquiring a copy of the file will only make you lose time, the name of the file in this case is too generic to obtain relevant results.