measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing

measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack. It costs 74 tokens per session (728 once invoked), scanned A, original, Apache-2.0.

A binary-triage guide that measures Shannon entropy, a statistic describing how random or compressed data appears, across a file and its sections. High or uneven values can indicate packing or encryption in executable files.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to calculate whole-file or section entropy, find unusual high-entropy regions, and compare raw and virtual section sizes when triaging PE samples.
Why use it?
Packed or encrypted code can hide useful strings and imports from ordinary inspection. Entropy provides an early signal for deciding whether deeper unpacking is needed, though it is not proof by itself.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit Use it to calculate whole-file or section entropy, find unusual high-entropy regions, and compare raw and virtual section sizes when triaging PE samples.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing
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 meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack --skill measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

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 measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing/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.

agentmods 80×15 button for measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 74 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 728 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.
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 $0.00074 $0.00728
Opus 5 $0.00037 $0.00364
Sonnet 5 $0.00015 $0.00146
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00073

Measured 8d ago against content hash d91e16b540e6, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-11, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing 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 8d ago.

The scan reads SKILL.md. This mod also ships 1 executable file (scripts/analyst.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.

skills/measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing/SKILL.md · 90 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 90 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Measuring Section Entropy to Detect Packing

When to Use

  • You want a quick statistical signal of whether a sample is packed or encrypted.
  • You are triaging a PE and need to flag suspicious high-entropy executable sections.
  • You are deciding whether to route a sample to an unpacking workflow.

Do not use entropy as a verdict — legitimate compressed resources and installers also show high entropy; combine with imports, section names, and raw/virtual size anomalies.

Prerequisites

  • Python (math stdlib); optionally pefile for per-section analysis.

Safety & Handling

  • Compute entropy on the inert file; never execute the sample.
  • Keep the sample password-protected at rest and reference it by hash.

Workflow

Step 1: Compute whole-file and sliding-window entropy

Calculate Shannon entropy (0–8 bits/byte). Sliding-window entropy reveals localized high-entropy regions even when the overall value is moderate.

python scripts/analyst.py entropy sample.exe

Step 2: Compute per-section entropy (PE)

For each PE section, compute entropy and compare raw vs. virtual size. Executable sections with entropy > ~7.0 are a packing indicator.

Step 3: Correlate structural anomalies

Flag classic packer signs: high-entropy .text, unusual/renamed sections (UPX0, random names), tiny raw size but large virtual size, and an entry point outside .text.

Step 4: Decide routing

If indicators stack (high entropy + thin IAT + odd sections), route to unpacking; otherwise proceed with normal static analysis.

Validation

  • High-entropy executable sections are corroborated by other packing signs before concluding.
  • Benign high-entropy cases (compressed resources) are not misclassified as packers.
  • The routing decision (unpack vs. proceed) is justified by combined indicators.

Pitfalls

  • Calling any high-entropy file "packed" without structural corroboration.
  • Ignoring sliding-window entropy and missing a localized encrypted blob.
  • Overlooking raw-vs-virtual size mismatch, a strong unpacking-at-runtime hint.

Read the full file on GitHub · 90 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. 8d ago First seen · 90 lines · 74 tokens per session scan A d91e16b540e6

Subscribe to this mod's changes

measuring-section-entropy-to-detect-packing is a skill published in the GitHub repository meltedinhex/analyst-ai-pack (22 stars, last pushed 2mo ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 74 tokens to every session and 728 once invoked, about $0.0004 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 2026-09-03.

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