C2 Communication Analysis
Analyzes malware command-and-control traffic in packet captures to find beacons and decode protocols.
- Repository
- mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills
- Stars
- 35,430
- Licence
- Apache-2.0
- Files
- 3 files
What it does
This skill teaches an AI agent how malware analysts study the network traffic a piece of malware uses to talk to its controllers, called command-and-control (C2). Once installed, the agent can work through a packet capture (PCAP) to spot regular check-in patterns called beacons, decode request formats and encodings, identify which known attack framework such as Cobalt Strike, Metasploit, or Sliver the traffic resembles, and map infrastructure like primary servers and fallback domains. It also includes a Python script that flags likely beacons by measuring connection timing and jitter.
Great for
- Malware analysts and incident responders who already have a PCAP from a sandbox or network tap
- Security engineers writing network detection rules for a known C2 framework
- Students learning how C2 beaconing is identified in captured traffic
Skip it if
- General network anomaly detection, which the skill itself says it is not designed for; it is limited to known or suspected C2 protocols from malware analysis
- Live production monitoring or blocking, since it only analyzes saved captures
- Attributing attacks to a threat actor on its own; the skill mentions attribution but the evidence it provides is only technical indicators and should be verified by experts
Try asking
- “Analyze this PCAP from a sandboxed sample and tell me whether the traffic shows beaconing and at what interval”
- “Decode the HTTP POST bodies in this capture and explain the likely command structure”
- “Compare these URIs and headers against known Cobalt Strike default profiles”
- “Write a Suricata-style detection idea for the C2 pattern seen in this traffic”
Install in 3 steps
- 1
Download the skill
The ZIP contains the 3 original files, the Apache-2.0 licence and an attribution note.
analyzing-command-and-control-communication.zip - 2
Add it to your agent
Claude Code (all projects)
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && unzip analyzing-command-and-control-communication.zip -d ~/.claude/skills/Claude Code / Agent SDK (this project only)
mkdir -p .claude/skills && unzip analyzing-command-and-control-communication.zip -d .claude/skills/Claude apps (web/desktop): Settings → Capabilities → Skills → Upload skill, and choose the ZIP.
- 3
Ask for the task
No special command needed — the agent reads the skill's description and loads it when your request matches. Try one of the prompts above.
Get better results
- Only load PCAPs captured from isolated sandboxes or lab environments, since malware traffic and samples are hazardous to handle on production machines
- Review the scripts before running them, and run them with the agent in an isolated environment rather than on sensitive hosts
- Treat beacon detection output as a lead to verify; the timing heuristic can flag benign periodic traffic such as update checks
What's inside
- references/api-reference.md
- scripts/agent.py
- SKILL.md
Redistributed unmodified from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills under the Apache-2.0 licence. The assessment was drafted with AI from the skill's files on 2026-10-29. Skills can instruct your agent to run code — read SKILL.md and any scripts before installing.