taskset

Get or set a process' CPU affinity or start a new process with a defined CPU affinity. tldr-pages

GTFOBins shell 1 ATT&CK technique 1 documented command

How taskset is abused

documented by GTFOBins

shell T1059.004 Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell

Each abuse is GTFOBins's category and the options and words it uses; the full write-up is on GTFOBins's page for taskset.

1 documented command

from GTFOBins, each read by the identifier

shell unprivileged, with sudo

taskset 1 /bin/sh

Identify

The command the identifier reads trips no Sigma process-creation rule. This command is from GTFOBins, at commit acd524623f9c of 2026-05-27, under the GPL-3.0, with no warranty. Changed: Markdown is shown formatted. The source is in lolbas-gtfobins-commands.json.gz, and the full entry is on GTFOBins’s page for taskset. The identifier reads the line that runs taskset.

What detects it

Sigma process creation rules

T1059.004Command and Scripting Interpreter: Unix Shell

Everyday use

from tldr-pages, CC BY 4.0

Get a running process' CPU affinity by PID

taskset --pid --cpu-list process_idIdentify

Set a running process' CPU affinity by PID

taskset --pid --cpu-list cpu_id process_idIdentify

Start a new process with affinity for a single CPU

taskset --cpu-list cpu_id commandIdentify

None of the 3 examples the identifier reads matches GTFOBins abuse or trips a Sigma process-creation rule.

Options

4 in toybox

Show every option of taskset

-coption. PID without a mask displays existing affinity. A PID of zero

-pSet/get affinity of given PID instead of a new command (--pid)

-aSet/get affinity of all threads of the PID (--all-tasks)

-cSpecify mask as a cpu list, for example 1,3,4-8:2 (--cpu-list)