Agent skill

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python

by mukul975 in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

Parse Windows Prefetch (.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedDevOps & Cloud

Install Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python

skills CLI
$ npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python .claude/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python
GitHub stars
34k
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
211 words
Files
4 (incl. scripts, references)
Skills in repo
639
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Parse Windows Prefetch (.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists.

  • Works in 4 steps: Collect Prefetch Files → Parse Execution History → Detect Suspicious Execution → …
  • Investigating renamed
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, When to Use, Prerequisites and Steps, plus 2 more sections
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder

What it does

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills. Parse Windows Prefetch (.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists. Use when investigating renamed or masquerading binaries, verifying program execution timelines, or hunting for suspicious execution patterns in incident response.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 5 other files, including scripts and reference files (for example `references/api-reference.md` and `scripts/agent.py`).

It sits in DevOps & Cloud, covering Incident response. It works with Python. The repository describes itself as: 817 structured cybersecurity skills for AI agents · Mapped to 6 frameworks: MITRE ATT&CK, NIST CSF 2.0, MITRE ATLAS, D3FEND, NIST AI RMF & MITRE F3 (Fight Fraud) · agentskills.io…. The licence is Apache-2.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Investigating renamed
  • Masquerading binaries
  • Verifying program execution timelines
  • Hunting for suspicious execution patterns in incident response

Example prompts

  • “/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Collect Prefetch Files
  2. Parse Execution History
  3. Detect Suspicious Execution
  4. Build Execution Timeline

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 54a7988. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.7k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 92 tokens; SKILL.md has 211 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~92
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.3k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills at commit 54a7988, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mukul975). 211 words, ~1,258 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 3 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python
description
Parse Windows Prefetch (.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists. Use when investigating renamed or masquerading binaries, verifying program execution timelines, or hunting for suspicious execution patterns in incident response.
domain
cybersecurity
subdomain
digital-forensics
tags
digital-forensics, windows, prefetch, execution-history, incident-response, malware-analysis
mitre_attack
T1036.005, T1070.004, T1070, T1003.001, T1057
version
1.0
author
mahipal
license
Apache-2.0
nist_csf
RS.AN-03, DE.AE-02, RS.MA-01

Analyzing Windows Prefetch with Python

Overview

Windows Prefetch files (.pf) record application execution data including executable names, run counts, timestamps, loaded DLLs, and accessed directories. This skill covers parsing Prefetch files using the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct execution timelines, detect renamed or masquerading binaries by comparing executable names with loaded resources, and identifying suspicious programs that may indicate malware execution or lateral movement.

When to Use

  • When investigating security incidents that require analyzing windows prefetch with python
  • When building detection rules or threat hunting queries for this domain
  • When SOC analysts need structured procedures for this analysis type
  • When validating security monitoring coverage for related attack techniques

Prerequisites

  • Python 3.9+ with windowsprefetch library (pip install windowsprefetch)
  • Windows Prefetch files from C:\Windows\Prefetch\ (versions 17-30 supported)
  • Understanding of Windows Prefetch file naming conventions (EXECUTABLE-HASH.pf)

Steps

Step 1: Collect Prefetch Files

Gather .pf files from target system's C:\Windows\Prefetch\ directory.

Step 2: Parse Execution History

Extract executable name, run count, last execution timestamps, and volume information.

Step 3: Detect Suspicious Execution

Flag known attack tools (mimikatz, psexec, etc.), renamed binaries, and unusual execution patterns.

Step 4: Build Execution Timeline

Reconstruct chronological execution timeline from all Prefetch files.

Expected Output

JSON report with execution history, suspicious executables, renamed binary indicators, and timeline reconstruction.

Example Output

text
$ python3 prefetch_analyzer.py --dir /evidence/Windows/Prefetch --output /analysis/prefetch_report

Windows Prefetch Analyzer v2.1
================================
Source: /evidence/Windows/Prefetch/
Prefetch Format: Windows 10 (MAM compressed, version 30)
Files Found: 234

--- Execution Timeline (Incident Window: 2024-01-15 to 2024-01-18) ---
Last Executed (UTC)     | Run Count | Filename                    | Hash     | Path
------------------------|-----------|-----------------------------|----------|------------------------------------------
2024-01-15 14:33:15     | 1         | Q4_REPORT.XLSM-2A1B3C4D.pf | 2A1B3C4D | C:\Users\jsmith\Downloads\Q4_Report.xlsm
2024-01-15 14:35:44     | 1         | POWERSHELL.EXE-A2B3C4D5.pf  | A2B3C4D5 | C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
2024-01-15 14:36:30     | 3         | UPDATE_CLIENT.EXE-B3C4D5E6.pf| B3C4D5E6| C:\ProgramData\Updates\update_client.exe
2024-01-15 15:10:22     | 1         | NETSCAN.EXE-C4D5E6F7.pf     | C4D5E6F7 | C:\Users\jsmith\Downloads\netscan.exe
2024-01-16 02:28:00     | 1         | PROCDUMP64.EXE-D5E6F7A8.pf  | D5E6F7A8 | C:\Windows\Temp\procdump64.exe
2024-01-16 02:30:15     | 2         | MIMIKATZ.EXE-E6F7A8B9.pf    | E6F7A8B9 | C:\Windows\Temp\mimikatz.exe
2024-01-16 02:40:00     | 4         | PSEXEC.EXE-F7A8B9C0.pf      | F7A8B9C0 | C:\Users\jsmith\AppData\Local\Temp\psexec.exe
2024-01-17 02:45:00     | 1         | SDELETE64.EXE-A8B9C0D1.pf   | A8B9C0D1 | C:\Windows\Temp\sdelete64.exe
2024-01-18 03:00:45     | 1         | WEVTUTIL.EXE-B9C0D1E2.pf    | B9C0D1E2 | C:\Windows\System32\wevtutil.exe

--- Renamed Binary Detection ---
ALERT: UPDATE_CLIENT.EXE loaded DLLs consistent with Cobalt Strike beacon:
  Referenced DLLs: wininet.dll, ws2_32.dll, advapi32.dll, dnsapi.dll, netapi32.dll
  Volume: \VOLUME{01d94f2a3b5c7d8e-A4E73F21} (C:)
  Directories referenced:
    C:\ProgramData\Updates\
    C:\Windows\System32\

--- Execution Frequency Analysis ---
Most Executed (Top 5):
  1. SVCHOST.EXE          (267 runs)
  2. CHROME.EXE           (189 runs)
  3. EXPLORER.EXE         (156 runs)
  4. RUNTIMEBROKER.EXE    (134 runs)
  5. OUTLOOK.EXE          (98 runs)

First-Time Executions (Never seen before incident window):
  6 executables first run between 2024-01-15 and 2024-01-18

Summary:
  Total prefetch files:         234
  Suspicious executables:       6
  Renamed binary indicators:    1 (update_client.exe)
  Anti-forensics tools:         2 (sdelete64.exe, wevtutil.exe)
  JSON report: /analysis/prefetch_report/prefetch_timeline.json

© mukul975, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (scripts, references) in skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python of mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • LICENSE
  • references/api-reference.md
  • scripts/agent.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 54a7988

Compare with similar skills

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python this skillmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills34k—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
Security Setupluongnv89/skills131—~4.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Devops AgentLeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills2.2k—~5.3kAutomated safety check: NotesMIT
Alibabacloud Ecs Sec Userspacealiyun/alibabacloud-ecs-troubleshoot-skills148—~2.6kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Incident Responsehypnguyen1209/offensive-claude386—~2.5kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Incident Responsealirezarezvani/claude-skills28k—~3.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

Similar skills

  • Security Setup

    luongnv89/skills

    Install local-first security hardening: pre-commit secret detection, offline dependency scans, static analysis, reports, and gated free CI.

    131 GitHub stars~4.5k tokensUpdated today
    SecurityAuto-check passed
  • Devops Agent

    LeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills

    Your on-call DevOps assistant — one-click deploy, monitoring setup, scheduled backups, and fault diagnosis.

    2.2k GitHub stars~5.3k tokensUpdated 2 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check: notes
  • Alibabacloud Ecs Sec Userspace

    aliyun/alibabacloud-ecs-troubleshoot-skills

    Linux 用户态安全入侵检测与取证工具,专为 AI Agent 设计。自动判断服务器是否被入侵, 提供完整证据链和可执行修复建议。51 个安全分析器覆盖进程/网络/认证/持久化/Rootkit/ 恶意软件/内存取证/容器逃逸等 12 类检测维度,10 个数据采集器全面采集系统状态, 映射 103+ MITRE ATT&CK 技术,支持 standalone/docker/k8s 三种部署模式。

    148 GitHub stars~2.6k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check: notes
  • Incident Response

    hypnguyen1209/offensive-claude

    A skill your agent uses when responding to or forensically investigating an incident — triage acquisition (Velociraptor/KAPE), Volatility 3 memory forensics, Chainsaw/Hayabusa EVTX timelining…

    386 GitHub stars~2.5k tokensUpdated 9 days ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • Incident Response

    alirezarezvani/claude-skills

    A skill your agent uses when a security incident has been detected or declared and needs classification, triage, escalation path determination, and forensic evidence collection.

    28k GitHub stars~3.8k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed
  • Soc Operations

    briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills

    Build, run, and improve a Security Operations Center — alert prioritization, runbook authoring, escalation criteria, on-call structure, alert tuning workflow, MTTD / MTTR / fidelity KPIs, analyst…

    412 GitHub stars~2.9k tokensUpdated 4 mo ago
    DevOps & CloudAuto-check passed

More from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

All 639 skills in this repo
  • Campaign Attribution Evidence Analysis

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Weighs infrastructure, TTP, malware code and timing evidence with the Diamond Model and competing hypotheses to reach a confidence-rated attribution.

    34k GitHub stars~2.3k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Go Malware Analysis in Ghidra

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Walks through reverse engineering Go-compiled malware in Ghidra: parsing buildinfo and pclntab, recovering stripped function names and extracting dependencies.

    34k GitHub stars~2.8k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • LNK and Jump List Forensics

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Guides forensic analysis of Windows LNK shortcut files and Jump Lists with LECmd, JLECmd and manual parsing to show file access and program execution.

    34k GitHub stars~2.8k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Malware Persistence Analysis with Autoruns

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Hunts Windows malware persistence with Sysinternals Autoruns, covering run keys, services, scheduled tasks and drivers, with baseline comparison.

    34k GitHub stars~1.2k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • NTFS MFT Deleted File Recovery

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Guides a Windows forensic examination of the NTFS Master File Table to recover deleted-file evidence, build timelines and spot timestomping.

    34k GitHub stars~2.7k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed
  • Network Covert Channel Analysis

    mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

    Detects DNS tunneling, ICMP exfiltration and HTTP-based covert channels in packet captures and DNS logs when hunting for hidden command-and-control traffic.

    34k GitHub stars~2k tokensUpdated 1 mo ago
    Auto-check passed

Works with

Questions about Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python

What does Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python do?

Parse Windows Prefetch (.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists. Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.pf) files with the windowsprefetch Python library to reconstruct application execution history, run counts, and accessed file/volume lists.

When should I use Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python?

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python fits situations like: investigating renamed; masquerading binaries; verifying program execution timelines; hunting for suspicious execution patterns in incident response.

How do I install Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .claude/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .agents/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python, .gemini/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python, .github/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python and .opencode/skills/analyzing-windows-prefetch-with-python in your project.

What does Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python needs Python for the scripts in its folder. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. The check reads SKILL.md only: the scripts in the folder are not scanned, so read them before running anything.

What licence does Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python use?

Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python is published under the Apache-2.0 licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 443 tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python: Security Setup (luongnv89/skills, 131 stars), Devops Agent (LeoYeAI/openclaw-master-skills, 2.2k stars), Alibabacloud Ecs Sec Userspace (aliyun/alibabacloud-ecs-troubleshoot-skills, 148 stars) and Incident Response (hypnguyen1209/offensive-claude, 386 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Analyzing Windows Prefetch With Python?

mukul975 (a GitHub user) maintains it in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, which has 33,870 GitHub stars. The repository holds 639 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 31, 2026.

Source: mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.