Guidance for Microsoft Defender for Cloud — cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWPP) across Azure, AWS, and GCP.
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardening --agent claude-codeProject scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .claude/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.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/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .claude/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.Claude Code copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$skill-installer install https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardeningType this inside Codex. $skill-installer <name> installs a curated skill from openai/skills. The installer writes to $CODEX_HOME/skills (default ~/.codex/skills). Restart Codex if the skill does not show up.
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardening --agent codexProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .agents/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .agents/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .agents/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.Codex copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardening --agent cursorProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .cursor/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .cursor/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.cursor/skills/ instead of .cursor/skills for a personal install.
Cursor skills documentation · loads skills from .cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, .codex/skills/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .cursor/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.Cursor copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gemini skills install https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git --path skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening--scope user (default) or --scope workspace; --path is the subfolder of the repo that holds the skill; --consent skips the security confirmation prompt.
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardening --agent gemini-cliProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .gemini/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .gemini/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.gemini/skills/ instead of .gemini/skills for a personal install, then run /skills reload.
Gemini CLI skills documentation · loads skills from .gemini/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .gemini/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.Gemini CLI copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardeningInstalls for Copilot at project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Preview a skill first with gh skill preview. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a github-copilotProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.copilot/skills/.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .github/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .github/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.copilot/skills/ instead of .github/skills for a personal install. Commit .github/skills so cloud agent and code review can use it.
GitHub Copilot skills documentation · loads skills from .github/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .github/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.GitHub Copilot copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a opencodeOpenCode documents no install command of its own. Project install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.config/opencode/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills defender-for-cloud-hardening --agent opencodeProject scope by default (.agents/skills/); add --scope user for a personal install.
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .opencode/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening .opencode/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.config/opencode/skills/ instead of .opencode/skills for a personal install.
OpenCode skills documentation · loads skills from .opencode/skills/, .claude/skills/, .agents/skills/
Install the "defender-for-cloud-hardening" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening into .opencode/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "defender-for-cloud-hardening", then confirm the skill loads.OpenCode copies the folder itself, the same result as the manual copy. Check what it changed before you commit it.
defender-for-cloud-hardeningGuidance for Microsoft Defender for Cloud — cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWPP) across Azure, AWS, and GCP.
Defender For Cloud Hardening is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for Microsoft Defender for Cloud — cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWPP) across Azure, AWS, and GCP. Covers Foundational vs Defender CSPM, Secure Score, Defender plans (Servers, Storage, Containers, Databases, App Service, Key Vault, APIs, AI), agentless scanning, attack path analysis, and remediation prioritisation. WHEN: Defender for Cloud, CSPM, cloud workload protection, Secure Score, harden cloud posture, Defender plans, attack path analysis, multicloud…
Its SKILL.md is about 1.9k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.
It sits in Security, covering Cloud security, Secrets management and Security operations. It works with Microsoft Defender, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. The repository describes itself as: Curated Microsoft Security skills for AI agents - Defender, Sentinel, Entra, Purview, Intune, Security Copilot. The licence is MIT.
7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.
Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 15f16df. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.
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.
No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.
From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.
Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):
learn.microsoft.comFrom URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.
Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.
From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.
Defender For Cloud Hardening loads about 1.9k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 223 tokens; SKILL.md has 776 words of instructions outside code blocks.
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.
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); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.
The full file from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills at commit 15f16df, republished under its MIT licence (© vinayaklatthe). 776 words, ~1,894 tokens.
.claude/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).Microsoft Defender for Cloud is a cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) combining CSPM (posture, Secure Score, attack paths) and CWPP (threat protection for servers, containers, databases, storage, APIs, AI) across Azure, AWS, and GCP.
Assessing and improving cloud security posture, and enabling workload threat protection across a multicloud estate. Use this skill to choose which Defender plans to enable, how to prioritise remediation, and how to operationalise findings.
Do not use this skill for SaaS posture (cloud-app-security-posture), Sentinel SIEM
(sentinel), or extending Azure management to on-prem (azure-arc).
| Workload | Plan | Enable when |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions / accounts (posture) | Foundational CSPM (free) | Always; everywhere |
| Multicloud + attack paths + agentless scanning | Defender CSPM | Tier 1+ environments |
| Windows / Linux servers (EDR, file integrity, JIT) | Defender for Servers Plan 2 | Production servers |
| Storage accounts (malware, sensitive-data scanning) | Defender for Storage | Public-facing / sensitive data |
| AKS / EKS / GKE clusters | Defender for Containers | Any production cluster |
| SQL, Cosmos DB, open-source DBs | Defender for Databases | Internet-exposed or sensitive |
| App Service apps | Defender for App Service | Internet-facing apps |
| Key Vault | Defender for Key Vault | Tier 0 / regulated |
| APIs behind APIM | Defender for APIs | Public APIs |
| Azure AI / OpenAI workloads | Defender for AI Services | AI workloads handling org data |
Rule of thumb: Foundational CSPM everywhere on day one (it's free). Then enable Defender for Servers Plan 2 + Defender CSPM in production - those two unlock the most value (attack paths, EDR integration). Other plans by risk and budget.
Connect all clouds — Onboard Azure (auto), AWS (connector + CloudFormation), GCP (connector + service account). Without all clouds connected, attack paths can't trace across them. Verify: AWS / GCP connectors show "Connected"; recommendations appearing within 24 hours.
Foundational CSPM baseline — Get Secure Score, recommendations mapped to Microsoft Cloud Security Benchmark (MCSB), and asset inventory. Use as the universal baseline. Verify: Secure Score baseline captured for each subscription; recommendation count by severity logged.
Enable Defender plans by workload risk — Use the picker table. Don't enable every plan on day one - cost spikes and alert fatigue. Production-first.
Tag critical assets so the cloud security graph weights them appropriately —
criticality=high, environment=prod, data-classification=sensitive. Attack path
analysis uses these to rank.
Verify: critical assets tagged consistently; attack paths page shows them weighted.
Remediate by attack path, not by raw count — Use attack path analysis to find chains from internet → workload → sensitive asset. Fix the chain breakers first. Secure Score % is a vanity metric without attack-path context. Verify: top 5 attack paths reviewed weekly; chain-breaker fixes tracked separately from generic recommendation count.
Enforce with Azure Policy — Drive recommendations via Azure Policy DeployIfNotExists
or Audit. Assign workload-owner accountability with governance rules + SLA.
Operate — Stream alerts and recommendations to Sentinel for SOC correlation. Use workflow automation (Logic Apps) for auto-response (e.g. open ticket, notify owner).
Improve my Azure Secure Score in Defender for Cloud.Which Defender plans should I enable to protect VMs and containers?Use attack path analysis to prioritise remediation.Extend CSPM across AWS and GCP with Defender for Cloud.Tag critical assets and configure the cloud security graph for risk weighting.Stream Defender for Cloud alerts into Sentinel with workflow automation.© vinayaklatthe, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file
Just SKILL.md in skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening of vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 15f16df
Defender For Cloud Hardening 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.
| Skill | Stars | Used in | Tokens | Auto-check | Licence | Repo updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Defender For Cloud Hardening this skillvinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills | 175 | — | ~1.9k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Implementing Cloud Security Posture Managementmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~3k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Conducting Cloud Incident Responsemukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~3k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Detecting Compromised Cloud Credentialsmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~3.9k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Cloud Auditbriiirussell/cybersecurity-skills | 413 | — | ~1.3k | Automated safety check: Notes | MIT | |
| Hunting For Living Off The Cloud Techniquesmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~925 | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 |
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Continuously monitor multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) for misconfigurations, compliance violations, and security risks using Prowler, ScoutSuite, AWS Security Hub, Microsoft Defender for…
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Respond to security incidents in AWS, Azure, and GCP via identity-based containment, cloud-native log analysis (CloudTrail, Azure Activity Logs, GCP Audit Logs), resource isolation, and forensic…
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Detect compromised cloud credentials across AWS, Azure, and GCP by analyzing anomalous API activity, impossible-travel patterns, and credential-stuffing indicators using GuardDuty, Microsoft…
briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills
Audit cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, Azure) for misconfigurations, excessive permissions, and security gaps.
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Hunts for adversary abuse of legitimate cloud services (Azure, AWS, GCP, and SaaS platforms) for command-and-control, data staging, and exfiltration, i.e.
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Implement multi-cloud CSPM to detect cloud-native misconfigurations and vulnerabilities (IAM over-permissions, exposed storage, unencrypted data, missing network controls) using AWS Security Hub…
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for designing secure APIs on Azure - authentication, authorization, gateway controls, input validation, rate limiting, secret management, and runtime threat detection - aligned to OWASP API…
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for securing Azure App Service web apps and APIs — managed identity, Easy Auth with Microsoft Entra ID, network isolation via private endpoints + VNet integration, HTTPS / TLS hardening…
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for Azure Arc — projecting on-premises, multicloud (AWS/GCP), and edge servers, Kubernetes, and data services into Azure Resource Manager for unified governance, security, and management.
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for secure remote VM management in Azure using Azure Bastion combined with Defender for Cloud just-in-time (JIT) VM access.
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for Azure Confidential Computing — protecting data in use through hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs).
vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills
Guidance for Azure DDoS Protection — Network Protection (per-VNet) and IP Protection (per public IP) tiers built on the same always-on Microsoft platform.
Categories
Guidance for Microsoft Defender for Cloud — cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWPP) across Azure, AWS, and GCP. Defender For Cloud Hardening is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for Microsoft Defender for Cloud — cloud security posture management (CSPM) and cloud workload protection (CWPP) across Azure, AWS, and GCP.
Defender For Cloud Hardening fits situations like: saaS posture (use cloud-app-security-posture); sentinel SIEM (use sentinel); extending Azure to on-prem servers (use azure-arc).
Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .claude/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .agents/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.
Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill defender-for-cloud-hardening -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening, .gemini/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening, .github/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening and .opencode/skills/defender-for-cloud-hardening in your project.
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Defender For Cloud Hardening is instructions for the agent only.
SKILL.md names 1 domain. As links in the text: learn.microsoft.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.
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. Review the folder before installing.
Defender For Cloud Hardening is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.
About 1.9k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 7.6k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.
Skills that share tags, products or a category with Defender For Cloud Hardening: Implementing Cloud Security Posture Management (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars), Conducting Cloud Incident Response (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars), Detecting Compromised Cloud Credentials (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars) and Cloud Audit (briiirussell/cybersecurity-skills, 413 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.
vinayaklatthe (a GitHub user) maintains it in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills, which has 175 GitHub stars. The repository holds 50 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on June 18, 2026.
Source: vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.
