Analyzes UEFI bootkit persistence mechanisms including firmware implants in SPI flash, EFI System Partition (ESP) modifications, Secure Boot bypass techniques, and UEFI variable manipulation. Covers detection of known bootkit families (BlackLotus, LoJax, MosaicRegressor, MoonBounce, CosmicStrand), ESP partition forensic inspection, chipsec-based firmware integrity verification, and Secure Boot configuration auditing. Activates for requests involving UEFI malware analysis, firmware persistence investigation, boot chain integrity verification, or Secure Boot bypass detection.
64
77%
Does it follow best practices?
Impact
—
No eval scenarios have been run
Advisory
Suggest reviewing before use
Optimize this skill with Tessl
npx tessl skill review --optimize ./skills/analyzing-uefi-bootkit-persistence/SKILL.mdQuality
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 is highly specific, comprehensive, and well-structured. It clearly delineates concrete capabilities, includes rich domain-specific trigger terms that security professionals would naturally use, and explicitly states when the skill should activate. The narrow UEFI/firmware security niche makes it highly distinctive with minimal conflict risk.
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Specificity | Lists multiple specific concrete actions: analyzing firmware implants in SPI flash, ESP modifications, Secure Boot bypass techniques, UEFI variable manipulation, detection of named bootkit families, ESP partition forensic inspection, chipsec-based firmware integrity verification, and Secure Boot configuration auditing. | 3 / 3 |
Completeness | Clearly answers both 'what' (analyzes UEFI bootkit persistence mechanisms, covers detection of known families, ESP forensic inspection, chipsec verification, Secure Boot auditing) and 'when' with explicit triggers ('Activates for requests involving UEFI malware analysis, firmware persistence investigation, boot chain integrity verification, or Secure Boot bypass detection'). | 3 / 3 |
Trigger Term Quality | Excellent coverage of natural terms a security analyst would use: 'UEFI', 'bootkit', 'firmware', 'SPI flash', 'ESP', 'Secure Boot', specific malware family names (BlackLotus, LoJax, MosaicRegressor, MoonBounce, CosmicStrand), 'chipsec', 'boot chain integrity', 'firmware persistence'. These are precisely the terms a user investigating UEFI threats would mention. | 3 / 3 |
Distinctiveness Conflict Risk | Highly distinctive niche focused specifically on UEFI/firmware-level threats and boot chain security. The named bootkit families, SPI flash, ESP partition forensics, and chipsec references make it extremely unlikely to conflict with other security or malware analysis skills that operate at higher levels of the stack. | 3 / 3 |
Total | 12 / 12 Passed |
Implementation
55%Reviews the quality of instructions and guidance provided to agents. Good implementation is clear, handles edge cases, and produces reliable results.
The skill excels in actionability and workflow clarity, providing a comprehensive, well-sequenced forensic investigation process with concrete commands and validation steps. However, it is severely bloated — the Key Concepts glossary, Tools section, and extensive output template add significant token cost without proportional value for Claude. The entire content is crammed into a single file with no progressive disclosure structure.
Suggestions
Remove the Key Concepts table entirely — Claude already knows what UEFI, SPI flash, ESP, Secure Boot, DXE drivers, and HVCI are.
Remove or drastically reduce the Tools & Systems section since each tool is already demonstrated in context within the workflow steps.
Move the detailed output format example and the full scenario walkthrough into separate referenced files (e.g., OUTPUT_TEMPLATE.md, SCENARIOS.md) to reduce the main skill's token footprint.
Trim inline bash comments that explain obvious operations (e.g., '# Using chipsec to dump SPI flash contents' before a chipsec spi dump command).
| Dimension | Reasoning | Score |
|---|---|---|
Conciseness | The skill is extremely verbose at ~300+ lines. The Key Concepts table explains terms like 'SPI Flash', 'ESP', and 'Secure Boot' that Claude already knows. The Tools & Systems section redundantly describes tools already used in the workflow. The massive output format example, while useful, could be significantly condensed. Many bash comments are unnecessary explanations. | 1 / 3 |
Actionability | The skill provides fully executable commands throughout — chipsec commands, flashrom usage, find/grep pipelines, sigcheck invocations, and registry queries are all copy-paste ready. Each step has concrete, specific commands rather than pseudocode or vague instructions. | 3 / 3 |
Workflow Clarity | The 7-step workflow is clearly sequenced from acquisition (SPI dump) through analysis to reporting. Validation checkpoints are present — hash verification after dumping, signature verification of boot components, whitelist comparison for firmware modules, and the scenario section explicitly warns against common pitfalls like running analysis from a compromised OS. | 3 / 3 |
Progressive Disclosure | This is a monolithic wall of text with no references to external files despite being well over 200 lines. The Key Concepts table, Tools & Systems section, detailed output format example, and the full scenario walkthrough could all be split into separate reference files. No bundle files exist to support progressive disclosure. | 1 / 3 |
Total | 8 / 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 | |
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Table of Contents
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