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TL;DR
- Agents turn AI from “answers” into “actions”, and that makes identity, permissions, and audit trails the center of AI-SPM.
- A safe agent posture model is a least privilege tool catalog with approvals, step-up auth, and full tool call logging.
- Use OWASP LLM risk categories and MITRE ATLAS to structure testing and threat modeling.
Why agents need posture management
An agent is not just an LLM call. It is an orchestrator that can:
- call tools
- retrieve sensitive data
- write to systems
- chain steps in ways that are hard to predict
This is why posture controls must answer:
- who can run the agent
- what tools it can call
- what data it can access
- what actions it can take, and under what approvals
The agent posture model
Identity posture
- Separate identities: user identity, agent identity, tool identity.
- Require short-lived credentials and scoped permissions.
- Record the “actor chain”: who requested, what executed.
Permission posture
- Create a tool permission matrix: read vs write vs admin actions.
- Default agents to read-only.
- Require explicit allowlists for write actions.
Tool-chain posture
- Maintain a tool catalog with risk tiers.
- Tier 1: read-only tools
- Tier 2: low-impact writes (comments, drafts)
- Tier 3: high-impact writes (payments, deploys, deletions)
Tier 3 requires step-up auth, human approval, or both.
Data posture
- Define what data types can enter prompts, tool context, or retrieval.
- Redact secrets and sensitive identifiers from logs.
- Apply retrieval access controls at the data layer, not just at the app layer.
Execution posture
- Add rate limits, timeout budgets, and loop detection.
- Enforce “transaction boundaries” for multi-step actions.
- Require confirmations for irreversible operations.
Monitoring and evidence posture
- Log every tool call: tool name, arguments, permission scope, outcome.
- Alert on anomalies: unusual write volume, tool call spikes, repeated failures.
- Keep an audit trail for approvals and exceptions.
Threat modeling and testing
Use:
- OWASP LLM Top 10 categories to define the most common failure modes, especially prompt injection and insecure output handling.
- MITRE ATLAS as a structured library for adversary techniques against AI systems.
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