analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history

analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history is a skill for Claude Code from 26zl/cybersec-toolkit. It costs 34 tokens per session (3,208 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A guide to reading Windows Prefetch files, records that can show which programs ran on a computer and when.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to examine Prefetch files from a forensic disk image, identify run counts and timestamps, and correlate program activity with other evidence.
Why use it?
It helps investigators build an execution timeline and check whether suspicious or unauthorized software was used.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: installed under .claude/.

Part of the cybersec-toolkit plugin — 197 skills, 2 hooks, 1 MCP server shipped together

Good fit Use it to examine Prefetch files from a forensic disk image, identify run counts and timestamps, and correlate program activity with other evidence.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history
Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent
npx skills add 26zl/cybersec-toolkit --skill analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/26zl/cybersec-toolkit

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install cybersec-toolkit, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 197 skills, 2 hooks, 1 MCP server.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

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Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/26zl/cybersec-toolkit/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 34 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 3,208 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe. Third-party audits
  • NVIDIA SkillSpector warn 7 Sept 2026
SkillSpector: 2 findings, up to high

These are SkillSpector’s own severities. On a checked sample its high-severity flags on skills were ~96% false positives — a documented command, a public API, a “never do X” rule — so we show them as a caution to read, not a verdict. Why →

  • high YARA Match · line 191
    YARA rule matched a known malware signature (reverse shell, backdoor, ransomware, C2 framework, or info stealer).
    Fix: Remove the malware payload or compromised file entirely. Investigate how it entered the skill and audit all other artifacts for additional indicators of compromise.
  • high YARA Match · line 191
    YARA rule matched a hack tool or exploit indicator (offensive tools, reconnaissance, privilege escalation, or exploit frameworks).
    Fix: Remove offensive tool references and exploit code. Legitimate agent skills should not contain penetration testing tools, exploit frameworks, or reconnaissance utilities.
How audits are shown
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00034 $0.03208
Opus 5 $0.00017 $0.01604
Sonnet 5 $0.00007 $0.00642
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00321

Measured 11d ago against content hash 58849dbbb92c, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 11d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/agent.py), listed below but not scanned — reading those needs a real analyzer, not pattern matching.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

Origin

Copies of this mod

5 near-identical copies found in the catalogue:

.claude/skills/analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history/SKILL.md · 329 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 329 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Analyzing Prefetch Files for Execution History

When to Use

  • When determining which programs were executed on a Windows system and when
  • During malware investigations to confirm execution of suspicious binaries
  • For establishing a timeline of application usage during an incident
  • When correlating program execution with other forensic artifacts
  • To identify anti-forensic tools or unauthorized software that was run

Prerequisites

  • Access to Windows Prefetch directory (C:\Windows\Prefetch) from forensic image
  • PECmd (Eric Zimmerman), WinPrefetchView, or python-prefetch parser
  • Understanding of Prefetch file format (versions 17, 23, 26, 30)
  • Windows system with Prefetch enabled (default on client OS, disabled on servers)
  • Knowledge of Prefetch naming conventions (APPNAME-HASH.pf)

Workflow

Step 1: Extract Prefetch Files from Forensic Image

# Mount the forensic image
mount -o ro,loop,offset=$((2048*512)) /cases/case-2024-001/images/evidence.dd /mnt/evidence

# Copy all prefetch files
mkdir -p /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/
cp /mnt/evidence/Windows/Prefetch/*.pf /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/

# Count and list prefetch files
ls -la /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/ | wc -l
ls -la /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/ | head -30

# Hash all prefetch files for integrity
sha256sum /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/*.pf > /cases/case-2024-001/prefetch/pf_hashes.txt

# Note: Prefetch filename format is EXECUTABLE_NAME-XXXXXXXX.pf
# The hash (XXXXXXXX) is based on the executable path
# Same executable from different paths creates different prefetch files

Step 2: Parse Prefetch Files with PECmd

# Using Eric Zimmerman's PECmd (Windows or via Mono/Wine on Linux)
# Download from https://ericzimmerman.github.io/

# Parse a single prefetch file
PECmd.exe -f "C:\cases\prefetch\POWERSHELL.EXE-A]B2C3D4.pf"

# Parse all prefetch files and output to CSV
PECmd.exe -d "C:\cases\prefetch\" --csv "C:\cases\analysis\" --csvf prefetch_results.csv

# Parse with JSON output
PECmd.exe -d "C:\cases\prefetch\" --json "C:\cases\analysis\" --jsonf prefetch_results.json

# Output includes for each file:
# - Executable name and path
# - Run count
# - Last run time (up to 8 timestamps in Windows 10)
# - Files and directories referenced during execution
# - Volume information (serial number, creation date)
# - Prefetch file creation time

Read the full file on GitHub · 329 lines

Files

What ships with it

3 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 11d ago First seen · 329 lines · 34 tokens per session scan A 58849dbbb92c

Subscribe to this mod's changes

analyzing-prefetch-files-for-execution-history is a skill published in the GitHub repository 26zl/cybersec-toolkit (54 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 34 tokens to every session and 3,208 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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