# Delegate > Autonomous sub-agent hand-off for a fiddly, fully-specified exploit-compile / escalation RUN - the main agent stays on strategy and the board while a cheap sub-agent runs an exact copy-paste checklist behind a false-root/hostname guardrail. Use for "delegate", "offload", "hand this to a sub-agent", "spin a haiku", or the moment a foothold plus a working escalation vector is identified. Main agent dispatches, waits (no parallel duplicate), integrates the result. - Skill: `encod3d-sec/delegate` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add encod3d-sec/delegate` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/encod3d-sec/delegate/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: AI & ML - Author: Encod3d-Sec (https://skillmd.com/u/encod3d-sec) - Updated: 2026-09-21 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/encod3d-sec/delegate --- # Delegate: sub-agent exploit-run Hand a fiddly, fully-specified exploit-compile or escalation run to a cheap sub-agent so the main agent stays on strategy and the board. ## When to delegate / when NOT Delegate when a foothold plus a WORKING escalation vector is identified, or the step itself is a fiddly fully-specified multi-step compile/run: compile a C PoC, deliver and run an ELF, drive `su`/`sudo`/`screen -r`, msfvenom + `multi/handler` catch. Keep on the main agent: recon, judgement- heavy vector selection, anything not fully specified. An unconfirmed vector is not a delegation, it is a guess wearing a checklist. ## Model choice `haiku` is the DEFAULT for a fully-specified mechanical or wait-heavy run: compile-and-run a known exploit, deliver an ELF, decrypt a credential store, a pspy/tcpdump watch window, a fixed-payload flag-read. On CTF and RoE-approved pentests the safety bar for a cheap model executing an exploit is already cleared, so lean into haiku there and keep the main model on strategy. Step UP to `sonnet` only for a genuinely judgement-heavy multi-step run (a JS-heavy per-route-CSRF authed backend RCE). NEVER delegate DISCOVERY or judgement to a cheap model: route/endpoint/token discovery, "is this surface empty or am I querying it wrong", vector selection. A cheap model hardens a wrong negative into a fact -- it reports "empty/dead" from a query mistake and you inherit it as a hard exclusion (a real miss: a delegated agent called a UCP voicemail "empty" because it hit the AJAX endpoint, not the dashboard widget that rendered the secret; that fossilized into a wrong "rabbit hole" and cost an hour+). If the run is not fully specified, it is not a delegation, it is a guess wearing a checklist, keep it on the main model. Re-verify any NEGATIVE a sub-agent returns before it becomes a Deadend. ## The checklist (a delegation is only as good as its checklist) Every delegation needs all six slots filled. Under-specify one and the sub-agent flails; that is the usual failure mode, not a weak sub-agent. - **(a) confirmed access/primitive**, spelled out; don't make the sub-agent rediscover it. - **(b) exact copy-paste commands**, real IPs/paths inline, no `$VAR`; the sub-agent cannot watch a live terminal to sanity-check a substitution. - **(c) egress/port constraints**, an egress-tested LPORT, not a guess at 4444. - **(d) the false-root guardrail** (next section), non-negotiable. - **(e) fragile-box discipline** if applicable: serial requests, long timeouts, no fuzzers. - **(f) report-back contract**: return the primitive/creds/flag plus evidence path; do not pivot further without the main agent. - **(g) anti-give-up + no-guess**: run the FULL specified window (a 5-minute pspy watch is 5 minutes, not 2); if blocked, report the RAW output/errors and STOP, never guess or substitute a value and never invent a result. A cheap model's instinct is to quit early and guess a token/flag, forbid both explicitly in the prompt. ## False-root/hostname guardrail (MANDATORY every delegation) A returned `uid=0`/root is trusted ONLY if `hostname` matches the target AND the expected uid holds. Otherwise the shell died back to the Kali box, which runs as root; `$(...)`/backticks there substitute LOCALLY, the false-RCE trap. The fix is re-pop, not celebrate. The sub-agent MUST report `hostname` alongside any `id` output, every time, no exceptions. ## Main-agent discipline Keep driving the board while the sub-agent works. Dispatch ONE sub-agent at a time, serial; never duplicate its target in parallel. WAIT for completion before the next move. On return, persist the primitive/creds/flag to `state.md`/`loot.md`/`Killchain.md` before doing anything else. ## Mechanism Dispatch via the Agent tool: `subagent_type` general-purpose, `model` per the choice above, the checklist as the prompt, an explicit return/report contract written into the prompt itself. This skill's invocation IS the standing authorization to use the Agent tool mid-engagement; no separate approval needed. ## Worked examples Each uses placeholder tokens only. **(1) Catch a meterpreter as a service account** Confirmed: RCE via the admin panel upload field on ``. Egress-test the LPORT first (80/443 before 4444). Start `multi/handler` on the Kali VM, then deliver an inline base64 ELF payload through the panel RCE. Report back `hostname` + `id` + the session log path. **(2) `ssh2john` -> crack -> `ssh-keygen -p` strip -> SSH chain** Confirmed: a private key at `` protected by a passphrase. Run `ssh2john > `, crack with the standard wordlist, then `ssh-keygen -p -f ` to strip the passphrase, then `ssh -i @`. Report the cracked passphrase and the resulting shell's `hostname` + `id`. **(3) sudo `screen -r ` -> `Ctrl-A c` root** Confirmed: `sudo -l` shows `screen` unrestricted and a root-owned session `` is running. Run `sudo screen -r `, then send `Ctrl-A c` to spawn a new window inside the root screen. Report `hostname` + `id` from inside that window before touching anything else; the guardrail applies here too. **(4) openssl-caps `.so` constructor root** Confirmed: the `openssl` binary carries `cap_setuid+ep`. Compile a `.so` with a constructor that execs a shell, run it via `openssl req -engine `, then confirm `hostname` + `id` inside the new shell before reporting root. Once a working checklist and guardrail confirm a primitive, hand the box's actual next step to `Skill(metasploit)` when the run is msf-shaped (handler catch, module-driven exploit); this skill covers the delegation pattern itself, not the msf mechanics. ## Client-data boundary Worked examples use placeholders only; never put a real target IP, hostname, or credential into this skill file.