About

Imported from mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills (skills/analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills --skill analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts. Copyright stays with the author (Apache-2.0).

Analyzing PowerShell Empire Artifacts

Name: analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts
Author: mukul975

Overview

PowerShell Empire is a post-exploitation framework consisting of listeners, stagers, and agents. Its artifacts leave detectable traces in Windows event logs, particularly PowerShell Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) and Module Logging (Event ID 4103). This skill analyzes event logs for Empire's default launcher string (powershell -noP -sta -w 1 -enc), Base64 encoded payloads containing System.Net.WebClient and FromBase64String, known module invocations (Invoke-Mimikatz, Invoke-Kerberoast, Invoke-TokenManipulation), and staging URL patterns.

When to Use

When investigating security incidents that require analyzing powershell empire artifacts
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 access to Windows Event Log or exported EVTX files
PowerShell Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) enabled via Group Policy
Module Logging (Event ID 4103) enabled for comprehensive coverage

Key Detection Patterns

Default launcher — powershell -noP -sta -w 1 -enc followed by Base64 blob
Stager indicators — System.Net.WebClient, DownloadData, DownloadString, FromBase64String
Module signatures — Invoke-Mimikatz, Invoke-Kerberoast, Invoke-TokenManipulation, Invoke-PSInject, Invoke-DCOM
User agent strings — default Empire user agents in HTTP listener configuration
Staging URLs — /login/process.php, /admin/get.php and similar default URI patterns

Output

JSON report with matched IOCs, decoded Base64 payloads, timeline of suspicious events, MITRE ATT&CK technique mappings, and severity scores.

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-analyzing-powers-70df1a/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-analyzing-powers-70df1a.ocm.jsonjson

{
  "ocm": "1",
  "id": "mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-analyzing-powers-70df1a",
  "kind": "skill",
  "name": "analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts",
  "description": "Detect PowerShell Empire post-exploitation framework artifacts in Windows Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) and Module Logging (Event ID 4103), including the default launcher string, Base64-encoded WebClient/FromBase64String payloads, known module invocations (Invoke-Mimikatz, Invoke-Kerberoast), and staging URL patterns. Use when hunting for or confirming Empire C2 activity in Windows event logs.",
  "publisher": "mukul975",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "capabilities": {
    "domains": [
      "general"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "skill-md",
      "powershell-empire",
      "threat-hunting",
      "script-block-logging",
      "base64",
      "stager",
      "c2",
      "mitre-att-ck",
      "t1059-001",
      "forensics"
    ],
    "languages": [
      "en"
    ]
  },
  "quality_prior": 0.6,
  "examples": [
    "Detect PowerShell Empire post-exploitation framework artifacts in Windows Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) and Module Logging (Event ID 4103), including the default launcher string, Base64-encoded WebClient/FromBase64String payloads, known module invocations (Invoke-Mimikatz, Invoke-Kerberoast), and staging URL patterns. Use when hunting for or confirming Empire C2 activity in Windows event logs."
  ],
  "primary": false,
  "metadata": {
    "source": {
      "provider": "skills.sh",
      "repository": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills",
      "path": "skills/analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts/SKILL.md",
      "ref": "HEAD",
      "url": "https://github.com/mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/blob/HEAD/skills/analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts/SKILL.md",
      "key": "mukul975/anthropic-cybersecurity-skills/skills/analyzing-powershell-empire-artifacts/SKILL.md"
    },
    "license": "Apache-2.0"
  },
  "instructions": "# Analyzing PowerShell Empire Artifacts\n\n## Overview\n\nPowerShell Empire is a post-exploitation framework consisting of listeners, stagers, and agents. Its artifacts leave detectable traces in Windows event logs, particularly PowerShell Script Block Logging (Event ID 4104) and Module Logging (Event ID 4103). This skill analyzes event logs for Empire's default launcher string (`powershell -noP -sta -w 1 -enc`), Base64 encoded payloads containing `System.Net.WebClient` and `FromBase64String`, known module invocations (Invoke-Mimikatz, Invoke-Kerberoast, Invoke-TokenManipulation), and staging URL ",
  "cost": {
    "context_tokens": 459
  }
}

Fetch it by URL: GET /api/v1/registry/mukul975-anthropic-cybersecurity-skills-analyzing-powers-70df1a/manifest?version=1.0.0

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