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Assess the action, not just the task name
A broad label can hide very different levels of risk. “Research vendors” might mean reading public webpages, or it might include sharing confidential requirements, contacting vendors, signing up for trials, or changing procurement records. The latter actions introduce disclosure, external commitments, or system changes that a read-only search does not.
OWASP recommends limiting agents to the tools and permissions required, using approval for sensitive operations, and applying controls to high-impact or irreversible actions. Its AI Agent Security Cheat Sheet is practical security guidance, not a validated numerical scoring model. Evaluate each action in the workflow separately, including actions the agent might take after receiving new information.
Ask six questions before delegation
- What could go wrong, and how serious would it be? Consider financial loss, data exposure, operational disruption, legal or reputational harm, and effects on other people. The greater the possible impact, the stronger the need for independent checks and human oversight.
- Can the action be undone? Read-only inspection is usually easier to delegate than a write. Consider who would have to cooperate to reverse a change, and whether reversal is possible at all. OWASP’s AAI9 guidance distinguishes read-only inspection from externally reversible or irreversible configuration changes, such as granting an IAM role.
- What data and tools can the agent reach? Limit access to what the task requires. Separate read access from write, permission-management, and infrastructure access; do not grant broad privileges merely because a workflow might use them.
- Can someone or something independent check the result before it takes effect? A model’s confidence is not authorization. For consequential actions, an independent policy or execution component should validate the action’s scope, privilege, and approval. Approval should apply to the specific action and target.
- Could untrusted content change the agent’s behavior? Emails, documents, websites, and API responses can contain misleading information or instructions. Sanitize and validate inputs, constrain the available tools, and enforce authorization downstream rather than asking the model to decide whether its own action is allowed.
- Can you monitor, stop, and audit the action? Set appropriate action limits, keep useful decision records, and provide ways to interrupt or recover. Security-relevant configuration changes should use the change-management controls applied to human administrators.
Choose an operating level for each action
These three levels are a practical way to apply OWASP’s controls; OWASP and NIST do not prescribe this exact classification. A workflow may contain actions at more than one level, so set permissions and approvals at the action level.
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| Operating level | Suitable actions | Controls |
|---|---|---|
| Unattended, narrow permissions | Read-only retrieval, sorting, or formatting of non-sensitive material when errors are easy to spot and have little consequence. | Restrict the agent to the relevant data and tools. Avoid write access if the task does not need it. |
| Review or bounded approval | Drafting or proposing changes, and low-impact writes in a controlled environment. | Have a person or independent policy check the exact output before it affects others or important systems. Bind approval to the action and target, not to an open-ended request. |
| Human-led or approval required before execution | Payments, privilege changes, sensitive-data access, production deployment, bulk deletion, and security or infrastructure configuration. | Require explicit approval and suitable authorization controls. High-impact or hard-to-reverse operations should not proceed unattended. |
Move between levels only after reassessing access and scope
Start with the least autonomy and narrowest permissions that can complete the task. If more access is needed, treat that as a separate authorization decision—not something the agent can approve through its own reasoning. A policy or execution layer should validate the actor, tool, target, parameters, and approval state. For consequential actions, unknown risk classifications should fail closed.
Reassess whenever the task changes, tools change, data becomes more sensitive, or the workflow gains steps. A low-risk read can become a higher-risk operation if the agent can write, disclose information, contact an outside party, or delegate work onward.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What current standards work says—and does not say
NIST NCCoE’s February 5, 2026 announcement described a concept paper on applying identity standards and best practices to software and AI agents. The project is considering identification, authorization, auditing, non-repudiation, and measures to prevent or mitigate prompt injection. Its project page describes ongoing work to explore standards-based ways to identify agents, manage authorization, and audit access and actions; it is an active project, not a finished standard.
OWASP’s guidance supports least-privilege tools and permissions, independent authorization checks at execution time, approval for high-impact or irreversible actions, and fail-closed behavior when risk or approval validation fails. Its AAI9 card also calls for distinguishing read operations from privileged writes and assessing configuration actions by reversibility. These are general controls: organizations still need to apply them to their own systems, data, policies, and consequences.
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