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Purpose / Other

Investigate Without Getting Made Skill Security Audit

What the author says it does (original text)

>-

Independent security check

Do not install or run it yet

Files checked
3
Risks found
2
Could it run dangerous commands?Looks for programs run straight after downloading, remote control of your computer, and hidden commands.No risks found
Could it expose your files or keys?Looks for uploads of files containing passwords or keys, and keys written directly in the code.Risks found: 1
Medium risk

Requires durable sensitive records linking personas, identifiers, and case activity

Source references: 5
What we found

The runbook requires recording every identifier, its creation date and use, plus every session, and retaining burned numbers or addresses after retirement. Although the parent guidance recommends encrypted storage, these centralized records still become high-value data linking people, cases, devices, and operational timing.

Why this matters

If a case directory, vault, backup, or shared report is accessed without authorization, it could reveal investigation targets, activity patterns, account identities, and organizational attribution. It could also let an observer correlate personas that were intended to remain separate. Long retention extends the exposure window.

The runbook explicitly centralizes persona identifiers, creation dates, usage locations, session history, and case actions, while retaining burned numbers or addresses after retirement. Encrypted case storage and retention-based deletion mitigate the risk, but the identifier record is still retained. If exposed or broadly accessible, it could reveal cases, timelines, and investigative infrastructure and indirectly link operators. Users can ask for mandatory encryption, least-privilege access, auditing, fixed retention periods, and irreversible fingerprints instead of full retired numbers or addresses.

reference/persona-runbook.md:49In the instructionsOpen original file
Every identifier gets recorded in the persona's file with its creation date andwhere it was used. An untracked persona is one you cannot safely retire.
Show 4 other places
reference/persona-runbook.md:81In the instructionsOpen original file
- Let it acquire a few incidental connections organically. Do not solicit them.- Keep a log of every session, so the persona's own pattern-of-life stays  consistent when a different analyst uses it.
reference/persona-runbook.md:114In the instructionsOpen original file
Retire personas that were challenged, that touched a case that went adversarial,or that were used across cases by mistake. Retirement means: stop using it,record the retirement date and reason, keep the identifier record so a futureanalyst does not reuse a burned number or address, and delete the persona'scollected data under the case's retention rules in `write-the-intel-brief`.
SKILL.md:149In the instructionsOpen original file
One case, one environment. A dedicated VM per case is the clean answer; adedicated browser profile is the minimum. Containerised tab isolation separatescookies but not fingerprint — a convenience, not a boundary. Across setups: nopersonal accounts ever signed in; snapshot clean and roll back between cases;keep notes and downloads in the case's encrypted store; never open a target'sdocument or PDF in an environment that can reach your real identity.
reference/persona-runbook.md:99In the instructionsOpen original file
  pretext you have no authorization to make, or elicit information from people.- Log what the persona did, when, and what it saw, and archive the pages via  `read-deleted-pages` — the persona's access may not survive to be re-checked.
Could it delete files or keep running?Looks for broad file deletion, disk overwrites, and programs set to start automatically.No risks found
Could it bypass safety checks?Looks for skipped website security checks, excessive file access, or actions that skip your approval.Risks found: 1
High risk

Instructs users to operate long-lived fake accounts while avoiding platform correlation and abuse detection

Source references: 6
What we found

The runbook goes beyond suggesting a persona: it specifies isolated email, prepaid SIMs and payment instruments, avoidance of Tor or flagged datacenter ranges, partially completed profiles, distributed registration, and gradual account aging. Together, these steps reduce a platform's ability to identify fake accounts and link them to their operator, despite the stated observation-only limit.

Why this matters

Following the instructions may breach identity and anti-abuse rules, causing the persona, collected evidence, or linked accounts to be banned. The user or organization could also face contractual, privacy, impersonation, or unauthorized-conduct scrutiny and legal liability. Concealment makes sustained observation harder for the subject to recognize and respond to.

This is actionable guidance, not merely an example: it directs users to obtain isolated email, prepaid SIM, and payment identifiers, avoid egress likely to trigger verification, and age accounts through irregular logins and ordinary activity. These measures can reduce platform linkage and abuse detection for fake accounts, risking ToS violations and bans. Written authorization and observation-only limits reduce scope but do not remove platform, legal, or misuse risks. Users can require defined eligible investigators, mandatory legal approval, and a ban on account creation without platform permission.

reference/persona-runbook.md:42In the instructionsOpen original file
|---|---|| Environment | Build the persona from the same environment and egress it will always be used from. Creation-time IP and fingerprint are recorded and later compared. || Email | Provider that does not demand a phone number to register. One address per persona. Never a recovery address for another persona. || Phone | The hardest problem. Free online SMS-receive numbers are shared, are already registered on major platforms, and are widely blocklisted. VoIP numbers are frequently rejected. A dedicated prepaid SIM in a device that has never held your real SIM or contacts is the reliable option — and never your real number, not once, not "just to get through verification". || Payment | Only where unavoidable. Prepaid instrument, never a personal card, never a card shared between personas. || Avatar | Do not use a real person's photo — that is impersonation and it harms an uninvolved person. Synthetic faces avoid reverse-image hits but carry generator artefacts (fixed eye placement, distorted backgrounds, mangled jewellery and teeth) and are increasingly detected. Where the platform permits it, a non-face image is safer and less interesting to everyone. Whatever you choose, reverse-search it first with `find-the-original-image`, and strip its metadata with `secrets-in-file-metadata`. || Password | Unique, generated, stored in the case's vault. Reuse across personas clusters them the moment any one appears in a dump. |
Show 5 other places
reference/persona-runbook.md:54In the instructionsOpen original file
- Register from the persona's normal egress. Registering over Tor or a flagged  datacentre range invites immediate verification.- Complete the profile the way a real, slightly lazy user would: some fields  filled, some blank. Fully populated profiles look manufactured.- Set locale, language, and timezone to match the legend.- Turn off contact syncing and contact upload. Never grant contacts access.- Where the platform offers visibility controls, restrict the persona's own  profile — a persona with a bare public profile draws less scrutiny than one  that appears to be nothing at all.- Do not create several personas in one session from one address. Platforms  cluster on registration-time signals, and one ban then takes the whole batch.
reference/persona-runbook.md:68In the instructionsOpen original file
A persona becomes usable through unremarkable activity over time, not throughvolume. There is no minimum-days rule worth trusting — what matters is that theaccount has a history that predates its purpose, and that the history looks likea person's.- Log in irregularly, in the persona's claimed waking hours, from the same  egress and device fingerprint.- Follow mainstream, high-follower accounts consistent with the legend, then  gradually narrower ones. Following only accounts relevant to your case is the  clearest possible signal of purpose.- Accumulate a small amount of low-risk activity: saved posts, joined public  groups, an occasional innocuous reaction.- Let it acquire a few incidental connections organically. Do not solicit them.- Keep a log of every session, so the persona's own pattern-of-life stays
SKILL.md:243In the instructionsOpen original file
Say this plainly: **fake accounts violate most platforms' terms of service.**Accurate-information requirements are near-universal, the accounts get banned,and the ban can take your collection with it. Terms breach is generally acontract matter rather than a crime, but the boundary between breaching termsand unauthorized access is jurisdiction-specific and has been litigated bothways. Decide with counsel whether your mandate covers it, and record it.
reference/persona-runbook.md:73In the instructionsOpen original file
- Log in irregularly, in the persona's claimed waking hours, from the same  egress and device fingerprint.- Follow mainstream, high-follower accounts consistent with the legend, then  gradually narrower ones. Following only accounts relevant to your case is the  clearest possible signal of purpose.- Accumulate a small amount of low-risk activity: saved posts, joined public  groups, an occasional innocuous reaction.- Let it acquire a few incidental connections organically. Do not solicit them.- Keep a log of every session, so the persona's own pattern-of-life stays  consistent when a different analyst uses it.Maintain a small stable of aged personas across the platforms you routinelywork. This is a standing cost, not per-case work.
reference/persona-runbook.md:93In the instructionsOpen original file
  *change*.- Observe only. No messages, no follows of the target, no comments, no reactions  on target content. Reactions are notifications.- Before viewing anything the target controls, run the pre-action check in the  attribution-surface reference.- Never use a persona to access closed systems, request access on a false  pretext you have no authorization to make, or elicit information from people.- Log what the persona did, when, and what it saw, and archive the pages via
Could it mislead the AI or hide text?Checks the skill instructions for requests to ignore you, influence the report, or hide text in invisible characters.No risks found
Could it change links or payment recipients without asking?Looks for forced referral or payment changes combined with instructions to hide the change.No risks found

Inside this skill

8 instruction sections

This is an operational guidance Skill. It tells investigators to assess what a target may see—IP, browser fingerprint, logged-in identity, and timing—and to choose isolated environments and network egress accordingly. The supplied files contain no executable scripts or installation steps.

View source
SKILL.md:29In the instructionsOpen original file
1. **Who might notice?** A dormant shell company, a moderately technical   individual, a criminal group running monitored infrastructure, or a state   service. Their capability sets the bar.2. **What would they see?** Passive collection: a line in a server log. A   logged-in visit: your name. An interaction: your persona and its history.3. **What is the consequence?** Nothing, or evidence destroyed and accounts gone   dark, or the investigation attributed to your organisation and disclosed, or   physical risk to you or a source.
SKILL.md:41In the instructionsOpen original file
| Registries, archives, CT logs, court records | Normal browser, no persona. You are one of thousands. || Viewing a target's public website | Clean browser profile, commercial VPN, no logged-in sessions. || Any logged-in platform view of a target | Persona account, dedicated profile, and check the platform's viewer-notification behaviour first. || Target operates monitored infrastructure or is technically capable | Dedicated VM, non-datacentre egress, no reused fingerprint, timing discipline. || Organised crime, harassment risk, physical safety in play | Everything above plus compartmented hardware, and a colleague who knows what you're doing. |

The guidance expressly limits personas to observation and forbids eliciting people, entering closed systems without authorization, or using leaked credentials against a target. These are written limits; they do not technically prevent a user from exceeding them.

View source
SKILL.md:118In the instructionsOpen original file
Hard limit, regardless of mandate: personas are for **observation** — not foreliciting private information, inducing anyone to act, or gaining entry toclosed systems or groups on a false pretext you have no authorization to make.
SKILL.md:160In the instructionsOpen original file
**Never authenticate to anything belonging to the target.** Not their portal,not their wifi, not a login with credentials found in breach data, not a"forgot password" flow to confirm an account exists. That is the line betweenopen-source research and unauthorized access, and it does not move because thepassword was easy to find.

The guidance acknowledges that fake accounts usually violate platform terms and that impersonating real people may create criminal or civil exposure. Its stated investigative purpose therefore does not substitute for platform permission, organizational authorization, or local legal review.

View source
SKILL.md:243In the instructionsOpen original file
Say this plainly: **fake accounts violate most platforms' terms of service.**Accurate-information requirements are near-universal, the accounts get banned,and the ban can take your collection with it. Terms breach is generally acontract matter rather than a crime, but the boundary between breaching termsand unauthorized access is jurisdiction-specific and has been litigated bothways. Decide with counsel whether your mandate covers it, and record it.
SKILL.md:250In the instructionsOpen original file
Impersonating a **real, identifiable person** is a far more serious matter thanan invented persona — a number of jurisdictions criminalise online impersonationspecifically (California Penal Code § 528.5 is one example), and it exposes youto defamation and civil claims. Impersonating a **law-enforcement officer,government official, or lawyer** is a criminal offence in its own right in manyplaces, including under US federal law, and no investigative mandate covers it.
Start here · InstructionsSKILL.md
investigate-without-getting-made
Lines connect the instruction file to its sections, not an observed execution order. Select a section to read the source. 3 more sections are available in the original file.

File reference map

References: 2
Files making referencesReferenced content
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Files and check records3 files

Coverage and gaps

Content covered in each file

These are the source ranges included in this check, not a guarantee that every issue has been resolved.

  • SKILL.mdFull text included
  • reference/attribution-surface.mdFull text included
  • reference/persona-runbook.mdFull text included

This report is for the version above. We read the available code and instructions without running the skill or checking extra packages it installs. This is not a promise of safety: a different version or setup may behave differently.

  • SKILL.mdInstructions
  • reference/attribution-surface.mdSupporting file
  • reference/persona-runbook.mdSupporting file

Operations mentioned in code and instructions

Read keys or account settings
SKILL.md:161In the instructionsOpen original file
**Never authenticate to anything belonging to the target.** Not their portal,not their wifi, not a login with credentials found in breach data, not a"forgot password" flow to confirm an account exists. That is the line between
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File checksum (to compare versions)
33cf45e2c0a9cb35af7e4eced2a6c3b1029872424ee4b691c65bf1560a83730d