Claude Skills Guide

Claude Code Security Engineer Vulnerability Triage Workflow

Security vulnerability management is one of the most time-critical responsibilities in modern software development. With thousands of dependencies in typical projects and new CVEs disclosed daily, security teams face an overwhelming backlog of vulnerabilities to assess, prioritize, and remediate. Claude Code, with its ability to run specialized skills and execute code directly in your environment, transforms this chaotic process into a structured, efficient triage workflow.

This guide walks you through building a vulnerability triage workflow using Claude Code skills, enabling rapid assessment, consistent risk scoring, and automated remediation guidance.

Understanding the Vulnerability Triage Challenge

Traditional vulnerability triage requires security engineers to:

  1. Discover vulnerabilities through SCA tools, SAST, DAST, or dependency scanning
  2. Assess each vulnerability’s severity, exploitability, and business impact
  3. Prioritize based on CVSS scores, asset criticality, and exploit availability
  4. Assign to appropriate teams for remediation
  5. Verify fixes through follow-up scanning

Doing this manually for hundreds or thousands of vulnerabilities is unsustainable. Claude Code can automate much of this workflow while maintaining human oversight for critical decisions.

Core Claude Code Skills for Security Triage

To build an effective vulnerability triage workflow, you’ll need several specialized skills. While you can create custom skills, several existing patterns and tools form the foundation.

Dependency Scanning Skill

First, you need a skill that can analyze your project’s dependencies and identify known vulnerabilities:

---
name: vuln-scanner
description: Scans project dependencies for known CVEs
---

This skill uses tools like npm audit, pip-audit, or OWASP Dependency-Check to generate vulnerability reports. Claude Code can parse these reports, extract CVE identifiers, and cross-reference them with vulnerability databases.

CVE Research Skill

Once vulnerabilities are identified, you need context:

---
name: cve-lookup
description: Retrieves detailed CVE information from NVD
---

This skill fetches CVE details including:

Risk Assessment Skill

Not all vulnerabilities require immediate action. A risk assessment skill helps categorize findings:

---
name: vuln-risk-assessor
description: Calculates risk score based on multiple factors
---

Building the Triage Workflow

Here’s how these skills work together in a typical triage session:

Step 1: Initial Scan

Begin by running a dependency scan against your project:

Scan the codebase for vulnerabilities using npm audit and pip-audit. 
Generate a combined report with CVE IDs, severity levels, and affected packages.

Claude Code executes the appropriate scanning tools, parses output, and presents findings in a structured format. You’ll receive a list of vulnerabilities with their basic metadata.

Step 2: Enrich with Context

For each high-severity finding, request detailed information:

For each CVE with severity HIGH or CRITICAL, fetch additional details 
including CVSS vector, exploit maturity, and whether active exploits exist.

The CVE lookup skill retrieves enriched data from NVD and CISA, providing the context needed for accurate prioritization.

Step 3: Risk Scoring

Apply your organization’s risk model:

Calculate risk scores using: Base CVSS (50%) + Asset Criticality (25%) + 
Exploit Availability (25%). Flag any CVE with active exploits for immediate attention.

This combines quantitative severity with organizational context. A medium-severity CVE in a customer-facing payment service may warrant higher priority than a critical CVE in an internal tool.

Step 4: Remediation Guidance

For each vulnerability requiring action, request specific guidance:

For each unpatched vulnerability, recommend:
1. Upgrade path to fixed version
2. Alternative packages if no upgrade exists
3. Mitigation steps if no fix available
4. Code changes required for the fix

Claude Code analyzes your dependency tree, identifies compatible fixed versions, and can even generate the necessary package manager commands or code changes.

Practical Example: Triage Session

Let’s walk through a realistic session:

User: “Run a vulnerability scan on this Node.js project and triage the findings.”

Claude Code:

  1. Executes npm audit --json and npm audit fix --dry-run
  2. Parses results, identifying 23 vulnerabilities (3 critical, 8 high, 12 moderate)
  3. Presents findings in a prioritized table

User: “Focus on the critical and high severity items. Get CVE details for each.”

Claude Code:

  1. For each critical/high CVE, fetches NVD data via WebFetch
  2. Builds a detailed assessment including:
    • CVE-2024-XXXXX: Command injection in package X, CVSS 9.8, PoC available
    • CVE-2024-YYYYY: Prototype pollution in package Y, CVSS 7.5, no known exploit

User: “Which of these can be fixed with a simple upgrade?”

Claude Code:

  1. Analyzes dependency compatibility
  2. Identifies that 7 of 11 critical/high issues are fixed by npm audit fix
  3. Provides the exact commands: npm audit fix --force for 4, manual intervention needed for 3

User: “Generate the fix for CVE-2024-XXXXX.”

Claude Code:

  1. Checks current package version
  2. Identifies minimum fixed version
  3. Updates package.json or generates migration code
  4. Verifies the fix doesn’t break tests

Automating Repetitive Tasks

For teams with consistent triage needs, create custom skills that encapsulate your workflow:

---
name: security-triage
description: Automated vulnerability triage workflow
---
# Triage Workflow
## 1. Run dependency scan
Execute `npm audit` / `pip-audit` / your SCA tool

## 2. Parse and categorize findings
Group by severity: Critical, High, Medium, Low

## 3. Enrich critical findings
For each Critical/High CVE, fetch NVD details

## 4. Generate report
Create markdown report with:
- Summary statistics
- Prioritized vulnerability list
- Recommended actions

Save this as a skill and invoke it with: Use the security-triage skill to scan and triage vulnerabilities.

Best Practices

  1. Automate the repetitive: Use skills for scan execution, CVE enrichment, and report generation
  2. Keep humans in the loop: Reserve critical decisions—exemption approvals, remediation timelines—for human review
  3. Integrate with your toolchain: Connect scan results from CI/CD pipelines directly into Claude Code sessions
  4. Track metrics: Monitor triage time, false positive rates, and remediation velocity
  5. Iterate on risk models: Refine your prioritization based on actual exploitability in your environment

Conclusion

Claude Code transforms vulnerability triage from an overwhelming manual process into an efficient, scalable workflow. By using specialized skills for scanning, research, and risk assessment, security engineers can focus on high-value decisions while Claude handles the heavy lifting of vulnerability analysis and remediation guidance.

The key is building a skill library that matches your organization’s toolchain and risk tolerance. Start with basic scanning and enrichment, then layer in automation for the steps that consume the most time. As your workflow matures, you’ll find Claude Code becoming an indispensable partner in maintaining your security posture.

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