Guidance for designing Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) and the Microsoft privileged access strategy (enterprise access model, clean source principle, tiered admin isolation).
$ npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill paw-design -a claude-codeProject install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills paw-design --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/paw-design .claude/skills/paw-design && 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 "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .claude/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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/paw-designType 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 paw-design -a codexProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.codex/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills paw-design --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/paw-design .agents/skills/paw-design && rm -rf skills-srcUse ~/.agents/skills/ instead of .agents/skills for a personal install.
Codex skills documentation · loads skills from .agents/skills/
Install the "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .agents/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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 paw-design -a cursorProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.cursor/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills paw-design --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/paw-design .cursor/skills/paw-design && 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 "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .cursor/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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/paw-design--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 paw-design -a gemini-cliProject install goes to .agents/skills/; add -g for ~/.gemini/skills/.
$ gh skill install vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills paw-design --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/paw-design .gemini/skills/paw-design && 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 "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .gemini/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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 paw-designInstalls 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 paw-design -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/paw-design .github/skills/paw-design && 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 "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .github/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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 paw-design -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 paw-design --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/paw-design .opencode/skills/paw-design && 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 "paw-design" agent skill from https://github.com/vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills/tree/main/skills/paw-design into .opencode/skills/paw-design/ in this project. Copy the whole folder (SKILL.md and every file beside it), keep the folder name "paw-design", 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.
paw-designGuidance for designing Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) and the Microsoft privileged access strategy (enterprise access model, clean source principle, tiered admin isolation).
Paw Design is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for designing Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) and the Microsoft privileged access strategy (enterprise access model, clean source principle, tiered admin isolation). Covers when to use Enterprise vs Specialized vs Privileged device profiles, hardening (Entra-join, Intune, app allowlisting, Credential Guard), Conditional Access enforcement, and rollout. WHEN: privileged access workstation, PAW, secure admin workstation, enterprise access model, privileged access strategy, admin isolation, secured…
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 Legal & Compliance, covering Regulatory compliance. It works with Microsoft Defender and Microsoft Azure. 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.
Paw Design loads about 1.9k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 199 tokens; SKILL.md has 880 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). 880 words, ~1,929 tokens.
.claude/skills/paw-design/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).A Privileged Access Workstation (PAW) is a hardened, dedicated device used only for privileged tasks - isolating sensitive accounts from browsing, email, and arbitrary apps. PAWs are the device pillar of Microsoft's privileged access strategy and the enforcement point for the clean source principle.
Protecting administrators of high-value systems (Entra control plane, Azure root, domain controllers, identity infrastructure - "Tier 0") from credential theft, browser exploit, and supply-chain attack. Use this skill to choose the device tier, harden the build, and enforce PAW-only access via CA.
Do not use this skill for general endpoint hardening (defender-for-endpoint) or
device compliance baseline (intune-device-mgmt).
The enterprise access model maps admin roles to three device profiles. Wrong tier = either over-spending or under-protecting.
| Tier | Roles in scope | Device profile | What's allowed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Privileged (PAW) | Global Admin, Privileged Auth Admin, Tier 0 Azure Owner, Domain Admin, DC operators | Dedicated hardened device | Admin portals only; no email, no browsing |
| Specialized | Workload admins (Exchange, SharePoint, Intune, SQL DBA), Tier 1 Azure Contributor | Hardened build; some productivity | Admin portals + curated productivity (Office) |
| Enterprise | Help desk, Tier 2 ops, Reports Reader, Security Reader | Standard managed device + strong baseline | Full productivity with MDE + ASR + tamper protection |
Rule of thumb: the test for "needs a PAW" is can this account log into a domain controller, modify Conditional Access, or assume the root Azure subscription? If yes, PAW. If only managing one workload, Specialized. The PAW population should be small (typically < 1% of admins).
Adopt the enterprise access model — Map every privileged role to control / management / data plane. Tier 0 = control plane (identity, cloud control plane, on-prem AD). Tier 1 = workload admins. Tier 2 = ops / read-only. Devices, accounts, and access paths must match the tier. Verify: tier mapping document signed off; Tier 0 role count documented.
Apply the clean source principle — Any security dependency must be as trustworthy as the object it secures. Tier 0 administered only from Tier 0 devices. No "I'll just RDP from my laptop this once" - that breaks the model.
Build the PAW image — Entra-joined (not hybrid where possible), Intune-managed, hardware root of trust (TPM 2.0 + UEFI Secure Boot), app allowlisting (WDAC or AppLocker), Credential Guard + Memory Integrity on, BitLocker, Defender for Endpoint with all ASR rules in block mode, no inbound RDP, restrictive outbound firewall. Verify: WDAC policy enforced (not audit); Credential Guard running (msinfo32).
Lock down user experience — No local admin, no email client, no general browsing (block via DNS / firewall to non-admin endpoints), Edge restricted to admin portal URLs only. No USB storage. No app installs by user.
Enforce via Conditional Access — CA policy: Tier 0 roles can sign in only from a compliant device with the PAW device filter (custom attribute). Anything else = block. This is the control that makes the PAW non-optional. Verify: CA policy in enforce mode; What If a Tier 0 sign-in from a non-PAW = blocked.
Pair PAW with PIM, phishing-resistant MFA, and dedicated admin accounts — PAWs run with non-privileged accounts day-to-day; admin credential is FIDO2 + PIM-eligible, activated just-in-time for the task.
Pilot 5 PAWs first — Tier 0 admins are vocal. Hand-deliver, walk through, gather friction reports, iterate. Then scale.
Map our admin roles to PAW, Specialized, and Enterprise device tiers.Design the PAW image - Entra join, WDAC allowlist, Credential Guard, restricted browsing.Author the Conditional Access policy that requires PAW for Tier 0 role sign-ins.Plan a 5-admin PAW pilot before scaling to all Tier 0 roles.How do I enforce clean source when our imaging server runs on a regular laptop?Should our Exchange admins get PAWs or Specialized devices?© 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/paw-design of vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills.
Open the folder on GitHubat commit 15f16df
Paw Design 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paw Design this skillvinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills | 175 | — | ~1.9k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT | |
| Implementing Azure Defender For Cloudmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~3.1k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Computer InvestigationSCStelz/security-investigator | 249 | — | ~15k | Automated safety check: Warn | MIT | |
| Implementing Cloud Security Posture Managementmukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills | 34k | — | ~3k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| HIPAA Pre-Deployment Compliance Checkmaziyarpanahi/openmed | 5.5k | — | ~2k | Automated safety check: Pass | Apache-2.0 | |
| Hipaa ComplianceSushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance | 946 | 1 repos | ~2.3k | Automated safety check: Pass | MIT |
mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
Enable Microsoft Defender for Cloud (CSPM + CWPP) across VMs, containers, SQL, storage, and Key Vault, using Azure Policy for evaluation, Log Analytics for telemetry, Azure Arc for hybrid coverage…
SCStelz/security-investigator
A skill your agent uses when asked to investigate a computer, device, endpoint, or machine for security issues, suspicious activity, malware, or compliance review.
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…
maziyarpanahi/openmed
Walks a data pipeline against the HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule checklist and produces a gap report before it processes patient data.
Sushegaad/Claude-Skills-Governance-Risk-and-Compliance
Expert HIPAA compliance assistant for healthcare and software contexts.
K-Dense-AI/scientific-agent-skills
Organizes scope, controlled documents, risk files and traceability into draft evidence for human review against ISO 13485, 14971, 17025 and 15189.
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.
Works with
Categories
Guidance for designing Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) and the Microsoft privileged access strategy (enterprise access model, clean source principle, tiered admin isolation). Paw Design is an agent skill from vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills. Guidance for designing Privileged Access Workstations (PAW) and the Microsoft privileged access strategy (enterprise access model, clean source principle, tiered admin isolation).
Paw Design fits situations like: general endpoint hardening (use defender-for-endpoint); device compliance policy (use intune-device-mgmt).
Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill paw-design -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/paw-design in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .claude/skills/paw-design in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.
Run `npx skills add vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills --skill paw-design -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/paw-design in vinayaklatthe/microsoft-security-skills) into .agents/skills/paw-design 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 paw-design -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/paw-design, .gemini/skills/paw-design, .github/skills/paw-design and .opencode/skills/paw-design in your project.
SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Paw Design 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.
Paw Design 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 7.7k 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 Paw Design: Implementing Azure Defender For Cloud (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars), Computer Investigation (SCStelz/security-investigator, 249 stars), Implementing Cloud Security Posture Management (mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills, 34k stars) and HIPAA Pre-Deployment Compliance Check (maziyarpanahi/openmed, 5.5k 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.
