analyzing-linux-audit-logs-for-intrusion
Uses the Linux Audit framework (auditd) with ausearch and aureport utilities to detect intrusion attempts, unauthorized access, privilege escalation, and suspicious system activity. Covers audit rule configuration, log querying, timeline reconstruction, and integration with SIEM platforms. Activates for requests involving auditd analysis, Linux audit log investigation, ausearch queries, aureport summaries, or host-based intrusion detection on Linux.
90
88%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
Pending
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Quality
Discovery
100%Based on the skill's description, can an agent find and select it at the right time? Clear, specific descriptions lead to better discovery.
This is an excellent skill description that clearly defines its scope around the Linux Audit framework with specific tools, actions, and explicit activation triggers. It uses third-person voice consistently, provides comprehensive trigger terms that security professionals would naturally use, and occupies a clearly distinct niche. The description is thorough without being verbose.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: detect intrusion attempts, unauthorized access, privilege escalation, suspicious activity, audit rule configuration, log querying, timeline reconstruction, and SIEM integration. Names specific tools (auditd, ausearch, aureport). | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (detect intrusions, configure audit rules, query logs, reconstruct timelines, integrate with SIEM) and 'when' with an explicit 'Activates for...' clause listing specific trigger scenarios like auditd analysis, ausearch queries, and aureport summaries. | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms users would say: 'auditd', 'ausearch', 'aureport', 'Linux audit log', 'intrusion detection', 'privilege escalation', 'SIEM', 'host-based intrusion detection'. These are terms a security professional would naturally use. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche focused specifically on the Linux Audit framework (auditd/ausearch/aureport). Unlikely to conflict with general security skills or other log analysis skills due to the specific tooling and platform mentioned. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
77%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
This is a strong, highly actionable skill with excellent workflow clarity and concrete, executable commands throughout. Its main weakness is length—the document tries to be both a quick reference and a comprehensive guide, resulting in a monolithic structure that could benefit from splitting detailed rule sets and query references into separate files. The Key Concepts table adds unnecessary token overhead for information Claude already possesses.
Suggestions
Move the detailed audit rules block (Step 2) and the ausearch/aureport query reference (Steps 3-4) into separate referenced files to improve progressive disclosure and reduce the main skill's token footprint.
Remove or significantly trim the Key Concepts table—Claude already knows what auditd, ausearch, and aureport are; at most, keep the audit rule key concept since it's domain-specific configuration knowledge.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is generally well-structured but includes some unnecessary content: the Key Concepts table explains terms Claude already knows (what auditd, ausearch, aureport are), the Prerequisites section over-explains basics, and some commands are somewhat redundant. The audit rules section is appropriately detailed since those are domain-specific configurations, but the overall document could be tightened by ~20-30%. | 2 / 3 |
Actionability | Excellent actionability throughout. Every step contains concrete, copy-paste-ready bash commands with specific flags and arguments. The audit rules are complete and executable, ausearch/aureport queries use real flags and time formats, and the SIEM configuration includes actual config file content. The timeline reconstruction section provides a realistic step-by-step investigation workflow. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The six-step workflow is clearly sequenced from verification through rule deployment, searching, reporting, timeline reconstruction, and SIEM forwarding. Validation checkpoints are explicit: Step 1 checks daemon status and backlog, the reload step confirms rule count, and the Verification section provides a comprehensive checklist. The timeline reconstruction includes sub-steps (5a-5e) with clear progression. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | The content is well-organized with clear headers and logical sections, but it's a long monolithic document (~200+ lines of substantive content) that could benefit from splitting the audit rules, ausearch query reference, and SIEM integration into separate referenced files. There are no references to external supplementary files, and the Key Concepts table could be omitted or linked separately. | 2 / 3 |
Total | 10 / 12 Passed |
Validation
90%Checks the skill against the spec for correct structure and formatting. All validation checks must pass before discovery and implementation can be scored.
Validation — 10 / 11 Passed
Validation for skill structure
| Criteria | Description | Result |
|---|---|---|
frontmatter_unknown_keys | Unknown frontmatter key(s) found; consider removing or moving to metadata | Warning |
Total | 10 / 11 Passed | |
- Repository
- mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
- Commit
c15f73d
- Reviewed
Table of Contents
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