The Problem With Security Audits

Security audits are necessary and painful.

You hire consultants. They spend weeks reviewing documentation. They interview your team. They run scans. They produce a 200-page report. You fix the critical findings. Rinse and repeat annually.

The process works, but it’s slow and expensive. And between audits, you’re flying blind—accumulating drift, missing new vulnerabilities, hoping nothing breaks before the next review.

What if you could run a security audit whenever you wanted?

Claude Code Skills

Skills turn Claude Code into specialized agents. You define the expertise, the available tools, and the workflow. The agent operates within those constraints.

For security auditing, that means:

• Expert knowledge of compliance frameworks
• Access to file reading and code analysis tools
• A structured methodology for conducting audits
• Output formats that match what you need

The skill I built covers the full audit lifecycle: planning, assessment, findings, and remediation.

What the Security Auditor Skill Does

Here’s the scope:

Compliance Frameworks:

• SOC 2 Type II
• ISO 27001/27002
• HIPAA requirements
• PCI DSS standards
• GDPR compliance
• NIST frameworks
• CIS benchmarks

Assessment Areas:

• Access control audit
• Data security review
• Infrastructure hardening
• Application security
• Incident response readiness
• Third-party vendor security
• Configuration management
• Encryption validation

The skill reads your codebase, configurations, and policies. It maps findings to compliance requirements. It prioritizes by risk. It generates remediation roadmaps with timelines.

How It Works

The skill follows a structured methodology:

Phase 1: Audit Planning

• Define scope based on your compliance needs
• Identify high-risk areas to prioritize
• Map controls to framework requirements
• Establish evidence collection approach

Phase 2: Assessment

• Review security configurations
• Analyze access controls and permissions
• Evaluate encryption and data handling
• Check logging and monitoring
• Validate incident response procedures

Phase 3: Findings and Remediation

• Classify findings by severity (critical, high, medium, low)
• Map each finding to compliance gaps
• Provide specific remediation steps
• Estimate effort and timeline
• Suggest compensating controls where needed

Sample Output

Here’s what the skill produces after an assessment:

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Security Audit Summary
Controls Reviewed: 347
Findings Identified: 52
Critical Issues: 8
Compliance Score: 87%

Critical Findings:
1. MFA not enforced for admin accounts
   - Compliance: SOC 2 CC6.1, ISO 27001 A.9.4.2
   - Risk: High likelihood of account compromise
   - Remediation: Enable MFA for all privileged accounts
   - Effort: 2 hours
   - Priority: Immediate

2. Encryption at rest disabled for customer data
   - Compliance: SOC 2 CC6.7, GDPR Art. 32
   - Risk: Data exposure in case of breach
   - Remediation: Enable AES-256 encryption on database
   - Effort: 4 hours
   - Priority: Within 48 hours
...

Remediation Roadmap:
- Week 1: Address critical findings (8 items)
- Week 2-3: Address high-risk findings (15 items)
- Week 4-6: Address medium findings (22 items)
- Ongoing: Monitor and maintain

Projected Compliance Score After Remediation: 98%

The output is actionable. Each finding maps to specific compliance requirements. Each remediation has effort estimates. You know exactly what to fix and in what order.

Why This Matters

Traditional audits are point-in-time snapshots. You get compliant for the audit, then drift until the next one.

With a skill like this, you can:

Run audits weekly or even daily — Catch drift before it accumulates. Find new vulnerabilities as they’re introduced.

Prepare for formal audits — Know your compliance score before the auditors arrive. Fix issues in advance.

Onboard new services securely — Run a security assessment before deploying. Validate that new infrastructure meets your standards.

Train your team — The skill explains why each finding matters and how to fix it. It’s educational, not just a checklist.

Limitations

Let’s be honest about what this can’t do:

Not a replacement for penetration testing — The skill analyzes configurations and code, but it doesn’t actively exploit vulnerabilities. You still need pentesters for that.

Not a replacement for formal audits — If you need SOC 2 certification, you need an accredited auditor. This helps you prepare, not replace the process.

Limited to what it can read — The skill uses Read, Grep, and Glob. It can’t access network scans, runtime behavior, or external systems unless you provide that data.

Requires good inputs — If your policies aren’t documented or your configurations aren’t in the repo, the skill can’t assess them.

Use it as a force multiplier, not a silver bullet.

Building Your Own Skills

The security auditor is one example. The pattern works for any specialized expertise:

• Compliance Reviewer — Check code against specific regulatory requirements
• Architecture Auditor — Validate designs against best practices
• Cost Analyzer — Review cloud configurations for optimization
• Accessibility Checker — Audit UI code for WCAG compliance

The structure is the same: define expertise, specify tools, outline methodology, describe outputs.

Skills turn Claude Code from a general assistant into a team of specialists. Each one brings deep knowledge of a specific domain.

FAQ

Key Takeaways