About

Imported from mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills (skills/hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills --skill hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence. Copyright stays with the author (Apache-2.0).

Hunting for Startup Folder Persistence

Name: hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence
Author: mukul975

Overview

Attackers use Windows startup folders for persistence (MITRE ATT&CK T1547.001 — Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder). Files placed in %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup or C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup execute automatically at user logon. This skill scans startup directories for suspicious files, monitors for real-time changes using Python watchdog, and analyzes file metadata to detect persistence implants.

When to Use

When investigating security incidents that require hunting for startup folder persistence
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 watchdog, pefile (optional for PE analysis)
Access to Windows startup folders (user and all-users)
Windows Event Logs for Event ID 4663 correlation (optional)

Steps

Enumerate all files in user and system startup directories
Analyze file types, creation timestamps, and digital signatures
Flag suspicious file extensions (.bat, .vbs, .ps1, .lnk, .exe)
Check for recently created files (< 7 days) as potential implants
Monitor startup folders in real-time using watchdog FileSystemEventHandler
Correlate with known legitimate startup entries
Generate threat hunting report with T1547.001 MITRE mapping

Expected Output

JSON report listing all startup folder contents with risk scores, file metadata, and suspicious indicators
Real-time monitoring alerts for new file creation in startup directories

Use it

Copy one of these into your project. Installing also returns the manifest and these snippets.

yaml

targets:
  - https://api.opensmartroute.ai/api/v1/registry/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-hunting-for-star-b61002/manifest   # or paste the manifest below

Manifest

An Open Capability Manifest: the router reads it to know what this does, what it costs and when to pick it.

mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-hunting-for-star-b61002.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-hunting-for-star-b61002",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence",
  "description": "Detects T1547.001 startup folder persistence by monitoring Windows startup directories for suspicious file creation, cross-referencing Autoruns entries, and running a Python watchdog script for real-time filesystem monitoring. Use when hunting for malware or implants that survive reboot via startup-folder placement, or when validating autoruns/EDR findings against known-good startup baselines.",
  "publisher": "mukul975",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "coding"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "threat-hunting",
      "t1547-001",
      "startup-folder",
      "persistence",
      "autoruns",
      "watchdog",
      "filesystem-monitoring",
      "skills-sh"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Detects T1547.001 startup folder persistence by monitoring Windows startup directories for suspicious file creation, cross-referencing Autoruns entries, and running a Python watchdog script for real-time filesystem monitoring. Use when hunting for malware or implants that survive reboot via startup-folder placement, or when validating autoruns/EDR findings against known-good startup baselines."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills",
      "path": "skills/hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence/SKILL.md",
      "key": "mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/skills/hunting-for-startup-folder-persistence/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "Apache-2.0"
  },
  "instructions": "# Hunting for Startup Folder Persistence\n\n## Overview\n\nAttackers use Windows startup folders for persistence (MITRE ATT&CK T1547.001 — Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Registry Run Keys / Startup Folder). Files placed in `%APPDATA%\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup` or `C:\\ProgramData\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Start Menu\\Programs\\Startup` execute automatically at user logon. This skill scans startup directories for suspicious files, monitors for real-time changes using Python watchdog, and analyzes file metadata to detect persistence implants.\n\n\n## When to Use\n\n- When investigating secur",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 440
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-hunting-for-star-b61002/manifest?version=1.0.0

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