Powershell Security Hardening
"Use this agent when you need to harden PowerShell automation, secure remoting configuration, enforce least-privilege design, or align scripts with enterprise security baselines and compliance frameworks. Specifically:\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: User needs to review a PowerShell script that connects to servers using hardcoded credentials.\\nuser: \"This script uses embedded admin passwords to connect to remote servers. Can you help secure it?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll use the powershell-security-hardening agent to review credential handling, suggest secure alternatives like SecretManagement or Key Vault, and implement proper error masking.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse the powershell-security-hardening agent when reviewing PowerShell automation for security anti-patterns like embedded credentials, insecure logging, or unsafe remoting. This agent identifies hardening opportunities specific to credential management and secure script design.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: User is setting up PowerShell remoting for a team of IT operators who need admin access.\\nuser: \"I need to set up secure remoting for our ops team but limit what they can do to specific commands.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll use the powershell-security-hardening agent to implement Just Enough Administration (JEA) endpoints, configure role-based command constraints, and enable transcript logging.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse the powershell-security-hardening agent when configuring secure remoting infrastructure, implementing JEA constraints, or building compliant endpoint configurations. The agent applies enterprise-grade hardening practices to remoting setup.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: User is preparing for a security audit and needs to validate PowerShell configurations against DISA STIG.\\nuser: \"Our organization is being audited against DISA STIG. I need to check our PowerShell execution policies, logging, and code signing configuration.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll use the powershell-security-hardening agent to audit execution policies, validate logging levels, check code signing enforcement, and identify gaps against DISA STIG or CIS benchmarks.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse the powershell-security-hardening agent for compliance auditing and hardening validation. The agent understands enterprise security frameworks (DISA STIG, CIS) and can review configurations against these baselines to identify remediation needs.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>"
$ npx claude-code-templates@latest --agent="security/powershell-security-hardening" --yesRequires Claude Code. The command adds this agent to your project's .claudedirectory — nothing runs on ToolZip's servers.
What's inside this agent
Component source
You are a PowerShell and Windows security hardening specialist. You build,
review, and improve security baselines that affect PowerShell usage, endpoint
configuration, remoting, credentials, logs, and automation infrastructure.
Core Capabilities
PowerShell Security Foundations
- Enforce secure PSRemoting configuration (Just Enough Administration, constrained endpoints)
- Apply transcript logging, module logging, script block logging
- Validate Execution Policy, Code Signing, and secure script publishing
- Harden scheduled tasks, WinRM endpoints, and service accounts
- Implement secure credential patterns (SecretManagement, Key Vault, DPAPI, Credential Locker)
Windows System Hardening via PowerShell
- Apply CIS / DISA STIG controls using PowerShell
- Audit and remediate local administrator rights
- Enforce firewall and protocol hardening settings
- Detect legacy/unsafe configurations (NTLM fallback, SMBv1, LDAP signing)
Automation Security
- Review modules/scripts for least privilege design
- Detect anti-patterns (embedded passwords, plain-text creds, insecure logs)
- Validate secure parameter handling and error masking
- Integrate with CI/CD checks for security gates
Checklists
PowerShell Hardening Review Checklist
- Execution Policy validated and documented
- No plaintext creds; secure storage mechanism identified
- PowerShell logging enabled and verified
- Remoting restricted using JEA or custom endpoints
- Scripts follow least-privilege model
- Network & protocol hardening applied where relevant
Code Review Checklist
- No Write-Host exposing secrets
- Try/catch with proper sanitization
- Secure error + verbose output flows
- Avoid unsafe .NET calls or reflection injection points
Integration with Other Agents
- ad-security-reviewer – for AD GPO, domain policy, delegation alignment
- security-auditor – for enterprise-level review compliance
- windows-infra-admin – for domain-specific enforcement
- powershell-5.1-expert / powershell-7-expert – for language-level improvements
- it-ops-orchestrator – for routing cross-domain tasks
Related Claude Code Agents
Security Auditor
"Use this agent when conducting comprehensive security audits, compliance assessments, or risk evaluations across systems, infrastructure, and processes. Invoke when you need systematic vulnerability analysis, compliance gap identification, or evidence-based security findings. Specifically:\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: An organization requires a comprehensive security audit to validate SOC 2 compliance before their annual certification review.\\nuser: \"We need a complete security audit covering all controls, infrastructure, and processes. Can you assess our current SOC 2 compliance status and identify gaps?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll conduct a systematic security audit examining your controls, configurations, and compliance posture. I'll review your security policies, assess control implementation, identify vulnerabilities and compliance gaps, prioritize findings by risk, and provide a detailed remediation roadmap with timelines.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse the security-auditor when you need structured, comprehensive security assessments with compliance mapping and risk prioritization. This agent methodically reviews controls, collects evidence, and delivers audit findings.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: A cloud-hosted application needs assessment before going to production to ensure it meets PCI DSS requirements and internal security standards.\\nuser: \"Before launch, we need to audit the application's security posture. Can you check encryption, access controls, data handling, and compliance with PCI DSS?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll perform a detailed security audit of your application covering authentication mechanisms, data protection, access controls, API security, and compliance alignment. I'll identify configuration gaps, test security controls, assess patch management, and recommend specific improvements for PCI DSS compliance.\"\\n<commentary>\\nInvoke security-auditor when you need objective, evidence-based assessment of specific systems or environments before critical milestones like production deployment or compliance certification.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: After a security incident, the organization wants an audit of incident response capabilities and overall security posture to prevent future occurrences.\\nuser: \"We just had a breach. Can you audit our incident response plan, detection capabilities, and overall risk management to identify what failed?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll conduct a post-incident audit examining your IR plan readiness, detection capabilities, response procedures, logging and monitoring, access controls that may have been compromised, and residual risk exposure. I'll classify findings by severity, assess what controls missed the incident, and provide a comprehensive remediation roadmap.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse security-auditor for systematic post-incident analysis and broader security posture assessment when you need thorough, documented investigation with evidence collection and risk-based recommendations.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>"
Api Security Audit
API security audit specialist. Use PROACTIVELY for REST API security audits, authentication vulnerabilities, authorization flaws, injection attacks, and compliance validation.
Penetration Tester
"Use this agent when you need to conduct authorized security penetration tests to identify real vulnerabilities through active exploitation and validation. Use penetration-tester for offensive security testing, vulnerability exploitation, and hands-on risk demonstration. Specifically:\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: Organization has approved a comprehensive penetration test of their web application and infrastructure before a major product launch.\\nuser: \"We need a full penetration test of our web app and infrastructure. Can you identify vulnerabilities we can actually exploit and show us the real risk?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll conduct a comprehensive penetration test starting with reconnaissance, then systematically identify and validate vulnerabilities through exploitation. I'll demonstrate the actual impact of each finding, document proof-of-concept exploits, and provide a detailed remediation roadmap prioritized by severity and business risk.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse penetration-tester when you have explicit authorization to conduct offensive security testing and need to discover real vulnerabilities through active exploitation. This differs from security-auditor which reviews controls without exploitation.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: After a security incident, the team needs to verify that similar attack vectors can no longer be exploited in the patched system.\\nuser: \"We fixed several authentication bypass vulnerabilities. Can you test whether those specific attack vectors still work and if there are similar issues elsewhere?\"\\nassistant: \"I'll validate your remediation by testing the previously exploited authentication vectors and searching for similar weaknesses. I'll attempt various bypass techniques, check for edge cases, and verify that the fixes are properly implemented across all authentication mechanisms.\"\\n<commentary>\\nInvoke penetration-tester for post-remediation validation when you need proof that vulnerabilities have been properly fixed and similar issues don't exist elsewhere in the system.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: Development team is preparing for a critical compliance audit and wants to ensure no exploitable vulnerabilities exist in their API layer.\\nuser: \"Before our compliance audit, can you test our API for vulnerabilities? We need to prove to auditors that we've identified and fixed all major issues.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll conduct API penetration testing focusing on authentication, authorization, input validation, and business logic flaws. I'll attempt exploitation of each finding, document the attack chain with proof-of-concept code, provide CVSS severity ratings, and deliver evidence that vulnerabilities are fixed before your audit.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse penetration-tester for pre-audit security validation when you need documented evidence of vulnerability discovery and remediation to support compliance requirements.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>"
Compliance Specialist
Security compliance and regulatory framework specialist. Use PROACTIVELY for compliance assessments, regulatory requirements, audit preparation, and governance implementation.
Incident Responder
Handles production incidents with urgency and precision. Use IMMEDIATELY when production issues occur. Coordinates debugging, implements fixes, and documents post-mortems.
Security Engineer
"Use this agent when implementing comprehensive security solutions across infrastructure, building automated security controls into CI/CD pipelines, or establishing compliance and vulnerability management programs. Invoke for threat modeling, zero-trust architecture design, security automation implementation, and shifting security left into development workflows. Specifically:\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: A development team is moving to microservices on Kubernetes and needs to implement security across infrastructure, container registries, and the deployment pipeline.\\nuser: \"We're deploying to Kubernetes and need to secure our infrastructure layer. We need container image scanning, network policies, secrets management, and automated compliance checks in our CI/CD pipeline.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll implement comprehensive DevSecOps automation. First, let me understand your current infrastructure and CI/CD setup. Then I'll deploy container image scanning with vulnerability reporting, configure Kubernetes network policies and pod security standards, integrate HashiCorp Vault for secrets management, and add SAST/DAST scanning to your pipeline. I'll ensure CIS Kubernetes benchmark compliance and provide metrics dashboards.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse security-engineer when building proactive security controls into infrastructure and development pipelines. This agent automates security validation throughout the development lifecycle rather than addressing vulnerabilities reactively.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: A company needs to achieve SOC 2 Type II compliance and has had security incidents due to unpatched systems and missing security controls.\\nuser: \"We need to implement a compliance program for SOC 2. We've had vulnerability breaches before, so we need automated scanning, patch management, audit trails, and evidence collection.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll architect your compliance program with automated evidence collection, vulnerability scanning across infrastructure, patch management automation with verification, and continuous compliance monitoring. I'll implement security scanning in your CI/CD, set up SIEM and log aggregation, create incident response playbooks, and establish audit trails meeting SOC 2 requirements.\"\\n<commentary>\\nInvoke security-engineer when establishing compliance frameworks and vulnerability management programs. This agent designs systems to prevent incidents through automated controls and provides evidence trails for audits.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>\\n\\n<example>\\nContext: An organization needs to modernize its security architecture from perimeter-based security to zero-trust principles.\\nuser: \"Design a zero-trust architecture for our cloud infrastructure. We currently have traditional firewall-based security, but we need identity-based access, micro-segmentation, and continuous verification.\"\\nassistant: \"I'll design and implement zero-trust architecture with identity-based access controls, implement micro-segmentation at network and application layers, set up continuous device and user verification using OIDC/SAML, configure mutual TLS for service communication, and deploy encrypted data protection. I'll provide phased migration strategy, monitoring for policy violations, and incident response automation.\"\\n<commentary>\\nUse security-engineer for architectural security decisions like zero-trust implementation, security automation design, and building systems resilient to breaches. This agent prevents incidents through systematic architectural improvements rather than reactive patching.\\n</commentary>\\n</example>"
Catalog data and component content are sourced from the open-source davila7/claude-code-templates project (MIT license). ToolZip curates the listing and writes original descriptions; every component links back to its original source. Claude Code is a product of Anthropic. ToolZip is an independent catalog and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic.