Agent skill

Implementing Patch Management Workflow

by mukul975 in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills

Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure.

Apache-2.0Auto-check passedSecurity

Install Implementing Patch Management Workflow

skills CLI
$ npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill implementing-patch-management-workflow -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills implementing-patch-management-workflow --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/implementing-patch-management-workflow .claude/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow && 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
implementing-patch-management-workflow
GitHub stars
34k
Token cost
~2.7k tokens
SKILL.md length
497 words
Files
8 (incl. scripts, references, assets)
Skills in repo
639
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
Apache-2.0

At a glance

Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure.

  • Works in 5 steps: Configure Patch Sources → Automated Patch Assessment → Patch Testing Automation → …
  • Security work in your project
  • SKILL.md covers Overview, When to Use, Prerequisites and Core Concepts, plus 5 more sections
  • Runs Python scripts from its folder; calls curl

What it does

Implementing Patch Management Workflow is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills. Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure. An effective patc

Its SKILL.md is about 2.7k 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. 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

  • Security work in your project

Example prompts

  • “/implementing-patch-management-workflow”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

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

  1. Configure Patch Sources
  2. Automated Patch Assessment
  3. Patch Testing Automation
  4. Production Deployment
  5. Verification and Reporting

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.

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • curl

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

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

    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

Implementing Patch Management Workflow loads about 2.7k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.8k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 60 tokens; SKILL.md has 497 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~60
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.7k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.8k

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). 497 words, ~2,695 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 7 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
implementing-patch-management-workflow
description
Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure. An effective patc
domain
cybersecurity
subdomain
vulnerability-management
tags
vulnerability-management, patch-management, wsus, sccm, ansible, risk
version
1.0
author
mahipal
license
Apache-2.0
nist_csf
ID.RA-01, ID.RA-02, ID.IM-02, ID.RA-06
mitre_attack
T1190, T1203, T1068

Implementing Patch Management Workflow

Overview

Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure. An effective patch management workflow reduces the attack surface while minimizing operational disruption through structured testing, approval gates, and phased rollouts.

When to Use

  • When deploying or configuring implementing patch management workflow capabilities in your environment
  • When establishing security controls aligned to compliance requirements
  • When building or improving security architecture for this domain
  • When conducting security assessments that require this implementation

Prerequisites

  • Vulnerability scan results identifying missing patches
  • Patch management tools (WSUS, SCCM/MECM, Ansible, Intune, Jamf)
  • Test environment mirroring production
  • Change management process (ITIL or equivalent)
  • Asset inventory with OS and application versions

Core Concepts

Patch Lifecycle Phases
  1. Discovery: Identify available patches from vendors and vulnerability scans
  2. Assessment: Evaluate patch applicability and risk
  3. Prioritization: Rank patches by severity, exploitability, and asset criticality
  4. Testing: Validate patches in non-production environment
  5. Approval: Change advisory board (CAB) review and approval
  6. Deployment: Phased rollout to production systems
  7. Verification: Confirm successful installation and no regressions
  8. Reporting: Document compliance metrics and exceptions
Patch Categories
  • Security Patches: Address CVEs and security vulnerabilities
  • Critical Updates: Non-security bug fixes affecting stability
  • Service Packs: Cumulative update collections
  • Feature Updates: New functionality (Windows feature updates, etc.)
  • Firmware Updates: BIOS/UEFI, NIC, storage controller firmware
  • Third-Party Patches: Adobe, Java, Chrome, Firefox, etc.
Deployment Rings (Phased Rollout)
RingEnvironment% of FleetSoak TimePurpose
Ring 0Lab/TestN/A24-48 hrsFunctional validation
Ring 1IT Early Adopters5%48-72 hrsReal-world pilot
Ring 2Business Pilot15%5-7 daysBroader compatibility
Ring 3General Deployment50%7-14 daysMain rollout
Ring 4Mission Critical30%After Ring 3Final deployment

Workflow

Step 1: Configure Patch Sources
bash
# WSUS (Windows Server Update Services)
# Configure WSUS server to sync with Microsoft Update
# Via PowerShell on WSUS server:
Install-WindowsFeature -Name UpdateServices -IncludeManagementTools
& "C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools\WsusUtil.exe" postinstall CONTENT_DIR=D:\WSUS

# Configure GPO for WSUS clients
# Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update
# Specify intranet Microsoft update service location: http://wsus-server:8530
yaml
# Ansible: Configure patch repositories for Linux
# roles/patch-management/tasks/configure_repos.yml
---
- name: Configure RHEL patch repository
  yum_repository:
    name: rhel-patches
    description: RHEL Security Patches
    baseurl: https://satellite.corp.local/pulp/repos/patches
    gpgcheck: yes
    gpgkey: file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-redhat-release
    enabled: yes

- name: Configure Ubuntu patch sources
  apt_repository:
    repo: "deb https://apt-mirror.corp.local/ubuntu {{ ansible_distribution_release }}-security main"
    state: present
  when: ansible_os_family == "Debian"
Show full SKILL.md (201 more words)Show less
Step 2: Automated Patch Assessment
python
# patch_assessment.py - Correlate vulnerability scans with available patches
import subprocess
import platform
import json

def get_windows_pending_patches():
    """Query Windows Update for pending patches via PowerShell."""
    ps_cmd = """
    $Session = New-Object -ComObject Microsoft.Update.Session
    $Searcher = $Session.CreateUpdateSearcher()
    $Results = $Searcher.Search("IsInstalled=0 AND Type='Software'")
    $Results.Updates | ForEach-Object {
        [PSCustomObject]@{
            Title = $_.Title
            KB = ($_.KBArticleIDs -join ',')
            Severity = $_.MsrcSeverity
            Size = [math]::Round($_.MaxDownloadSize / 1MB, 2)
            Published = $_.LastDeploymentChangeTime.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd')
            CVE = ($_.CveIDs -join ',')
        }
    } | ConvertTo-Json
    """
    result = subprocess.run(
        ["powershell", "-Command", ps_cmd],
        capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120
    )
    return json.loads(result.stdout) if result.stdout.strip() else []

def get_linux_pending_patches():
    """Query package manager for available security updates."""
    if platform.system() != "Linux":
        return []

    # Try apt (Debian/Ubuntu)
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(
            ["apt", "list", "--upgradable"],
            capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=60
        )
        packages = []
        for line in result.stdout.strip().split("\n")[1:]:
            if line:
                parts = line.split("/")
                packages.append({
                    "package": parts[0],
                    "available_version": parts[1].split()[0] if len(parts) > 1 else "",
                    "source": "apt"
                })
        return packages
    except FileNotFoundError:
        pass

    # Try yum/dnf (RHEL/CentOS)
    try:
        result = subprocess.run(
            ["dnf", "updateinfo", "list", "security", "--available"],
            capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=60
        )
        packages = []
        for line in result.stdout.strip().split("\n"):
            parts = line.split()
            if len(parts) >= 3:
                packages.append({
                    "advisory": parts[0],
                    "severity": parts[1],
                    "package": parts[2],
                    "source": "dnf"
                })
        return packages
    except FileNotFoundError:
        return []
Step 3: Patch Testing Automation
yaml
# Ansible playbook: test_patches.yml
---
- name: Test Patches in Lab Environment
  hosts: test_servers
  become: yes
  vars:
    rollback_snapshot: "pre-patch-{{ ansible_date_time.date }}"

  tasks:
    - name: Create VM snapshot before patching
      community.vmware.vmware_guest_snapshot:
        hostname: "{{ vcenter_host }}"
        username: "{{ vcenter_user }}"
        password: "{{ vcenter_pass }}"
        datacenter: "{{ datacenter }}"
        name: "{{ inventory_hostname }}"
        snapshot_name: "{{ rollback_snapshot }}"
        state: present
      delegate_to: localhost

    - name: Apply security patches (RHEL/CentOS)
      dnf:
        name: "*"
        state: latest
        security: yes
        update_cache: yes
      when: ansible_os_family == "RedHat"
      register: patch_result

    - name: Apply security patches (Ubuntu/Debian)
      apt:
        upgrade: dist
        update_cache: yes
        only_upgrade: yes
      when: ansible_os_family == "Debian"
      register: patch_result

    - name: Reboot if required
      reboot:
        reboot_timeout: 600
        msg: "Rebooting for patch installation"
      when: patch_result.changed

    - name: Run post-patch validation
      include_tasks: validate_services.yml

    - name: Report patch results
      debug:
        msg: "Patching {{ 'succeeded' if patch_result.changed else 'no updates' }} on {{ inventory_hostname }}"
Step 4: Production Deployment
yaml
# deploy_patches.yml - Phased production rollout
---
- name: Ring 1 - IT Early Adopters
  hosts: ring1_hosts
  serial: "25%"
  max_fail_percentage: 10
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - import_tasks: apply_patches.yml
    - import_tasks: validate_services.yml
    - name: Wait for soak period
      pause:
        hours: 48
      run_once: true

- name: Ring 2 - Business Pilot
  hosts: ring2_hosts
  serial: "20%"
  max_fail_percentage: 5
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - import_tasks: apply_patches.yml
    - import_tasks: validate_services.yml

- name: Ring 3 - General Deployment
  hosts: ring3_hosts
  serial: "10%"
  max_fail_percentage: 3
  become: yes
  tasks:
    - import_tasks: apply_patches.yml
    - import_tasks: validate_services.yml
Step 5: Verification and Reporting

Run a post-patch vulnerability scan to confirm patch installation:

bash
# Trigger post-patch verification scan
curl -k -X POST "https://nessus:8834/scans/$VERIFY_SCAN_ID/launch" \
  -H "X-Cookie: token=$TOKEN"

# Compare pre-patch and post-patch results
# Expecting reduction in vulnerabilities matching deployed patches

Patch Management SLAs

SeveritySLA (Internet-Facing)SLA (Internal)SLA (Air-Gapped)
Critical (CVSS 9+)48 hours7 days14 days
High (CVSS 7-8.9)7 days14 days30 days
Medium (CVSS 4-6.9)30 days30 days60 days
Low (CVSS 0.1-3.9)90 days90 days90 days

Best Practices

  1. Maintain current asset inventory to ensure complete patch coverage
  2. Test all patches in a non-production environment before deployment
  3. Use phased rollouts with automatic rollback capabilities
  4. Coordinate patch windows with change management process
  5. Track patch compliance metrics and report to leadership
  6. Automate where possible to reduce manual effort and human error
  7. Maintain exception documentation for systems that cannot be patched
  8. Include third-party application patching (not just OS patches)

Common Pitfalls

  • Patching only operating systems and ignoring third-party applications
  • No rollback plan if patches cause service disruption
  • Treating all patches with equal urgency (no risk-based prioritization)
  • Manual patch processes that cannot scale
  • No post-patch verification to confirm successful installation
  • Ignoring firmware and BIOS updates
  • prioritizing-vulnerabilities-with-cvss-scoring
  • implementing-vulnerability-remediation-sla
  • implementing-continuous-vulnerability-monitoring

© 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/implementing-patch-management-workflow 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

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Questions about Implementing Patch Management Workflow

What does Implementing Patch Management Workflow do?

Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure. Implementing Patch Management Workflow is an agent skill from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills. Patch management is the systematic process of identifying, testing, deploying, and verifying software updates to remediate vulnerabilities across an organization's IT infrastructure.

When should I use Implementing Patch Management Workflow?

Implementing Patch Management Workflow fits situations like: security work in your project.

How do I install Implementing Patch Management Workflow in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill implementing-patch-management-workflow -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .claude/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Implementing Patch Management Workflow in Codex?

Run `npx skills add mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills --skill implementing-patch-management-workflow -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow in mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills) into .agents/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Implementing Patch Management Workflow 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 implementing-patch-management-workflow -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow, .gemini/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow, .github/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow and .opencode/skills/implementing-patch-management-workflow in your project.

What does Implementing Patch Management Workflow need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Implementing Patch Management Workflow needs Python for the scripts in its folder and the command-line tools its instructions call (curl). Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Implementing Patch Management Workflow access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Its commands use curl, which can reach the network depending on how they are called. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Implementing Patch Management Workflow 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 Implementing Patch Management Workflow use?

Implementing Patch Management Workflow 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 Implementing Patch Management Workflow use?

About 2.7k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 11k 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 2.1k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Implementing Patch Management Workflow?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Implementing Patch Management Workflow: Kubernetes Network Security Audit (kubeshark/kubeshark, 12k stars), Google Cloud PAM Helper (google/skills, 21k stars), Cyberowlai (karimhabush/cyberowl, 263 stars) and DefectDojo Vulnerability Management (AgentSecOps/SecOpsAgentKit, 219 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Implementing Patch Management Workflow?

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.