agent-owasp-compliance

name	agent-owasp-compliance
description	Assess tool-using and multi-agent AI systems against OWASP ASI-style controls, mapping evidence to prompt injection, tool governance, agency, escalation, trust boundaries, audit, identity, policy integrity, supply chain, and behavioural monitoring risks.
metadata	{"skill-author":"Marie-Lynne Block"}

Agent OWASP ASI Compliance Review

Assess AI agent systems against OWASP Agentic Security Initiative (ASI)-style controls and produce evidence-based gap reports.

Overview

This skill reviews autonomous or tool-using AI agent systems — agents that call tools, access systems, delegate work, or act on behalf of users. It maps observable evidence to ten ASI-style control areas and reports whether each area is covered, partial, missing, unknown, or not applicable.

This is a review and reporting skill. It does not implement controls, generate supply-chain manifests, or claim compliance without evidence.

System Evidence → Map each ASI control:
  ASI-01: Prompt Injection Protection
  ASI-02: Tool Use Governance
  ASI-03: Agency Boundaries
  ASI-04: Escalation Controls
  ASI-05: Trust Boundary Enforcement
  ASI-06: Logging & Audit
  ASI-07: Identity Management
  ASI-08: Policy Integrity
  ASI-09: Supply Chain Verification
  ASI-10: Behavioral Monitoring
→ Produce Evidence-Based Compliance Gap Report

Use This Skill When

• Auditing an existing agent system before production, procurement, or security sign-off
• Mapping code, configuration, tests, logs, and architecture evidence to ASI-01 through ASI-10
• Producing a compliance gap report with covered, partial, missing, unknown, or not applicable statuses
• Reviewing tool governance, escalation controls, trust boundaries, auditability, agent identity, or behavioural monitoring
• Re-assessing an agent system after architecture, policy, tool, or deployment changes

Do Not Use This Skill For

• Implementing new governance controls or runtime enforcement code
• Generating supply-chain manifests, signatures, SBOMs, or plugin provenance artefacts
• Broad application security reviews that are not agentic or ASI-focused
• Declaring formal compliance when evidence is incomplete or controls are only described in comments

Evidence-First Review Workflow

1. Define scope: identify agents, tools, data stores, external systems, delegated execution paths, and human approval points.
2. Gather evidence: inspect code, configuration, policy files, test cases, logs, runbooks, deployment settings, and architecture notes.
3. Map evidence to ASI-01 through ASI-10. Record file paths, control points, tests, and operational evidence where available.
4. Classify each control as covered, partial, missing, unknown, or not applicable.
5. Prioritise gaps by exploitability, blast radius, data sensitivity, autonomy level, and ease of remediation.
6. Produce a report with findings first, then a control matrix, open questions, and recommended next review checkpoint.

Review Resources

This skill includes local, copyable review assets:

• resources/asi-review-checklist.md — evidence checklist for all ten control areas
• resources/compliance-report-template.md — standalone report template with status definitions

The 10 Risks

Risk	Name	What to Look For
ASI-01	Prompt Injection	Input validation before tool calls, not just LLM output filtering
ASI-02	Insecure Tool Use	Tool allowlists, argument validation, no raw shell execution
ASI-03	Excessive Agency	Capability boundaries, scope limits, principle of least privilege
ASI-04	Unauthorized Escalation	Privilege checks before sensitive operations, no self-promotion
ASI-05	Trust Boundary Violation	Trust verification between agents, signed credentials, no blind trust
ASI-06	Insufficient Logging	Structured audit trail for all tool calls, tamper-evident logs
ASI-07	Insecure Identity	Cryptographic agent identity, not just string names
ASI-08	Policy Bypass	Deterministic policy enforcement, no LLM-based permission checks
ASI-09	Supply Chain Integrity	Signed plugins/tools, integrity verification, dependency auditing
ASI-10	Behavioural Anomaly	Drift detection, circuit breakers, kill switch capability

---

Check ASI-01: Prompt Injection Protection

Look for input validation that runs before tool execution, not after LLM generation.

Automated keyword scanning is a triage aid only. Do not mark this control covered unless there is observable validation before tool execution and tests or runtime evidence showing unsafe instructions are blocked.

Evidence to collect: input-processing code, policy evaluators, prompt-injection tests, tool-dispatch paths, denial logs. Positive signals: deterministic validation before tool calls, structured denial paths, tests for injected instructions. Negative signals: raw user input reaches tools, only output filtering exists, prompts tell the model to ignore attacks without enforcement. Common false positives: functions named sanitize or validate that do not run in the tool execution path.

import re
from pathlib import Path

def triage_asi_01(project_path: str) -> dict:
    """Triage ASI-01 signals. Manual evidence review is still required."""
    positive_patterns = [
        "input_validation", "validate_input", "sanitize",
        "classify_intent", "prompt_injection", "threat_detect",
        "PolicyEvaluator", "PolicyEngine", "check_content",
    ]
    negative_patterns = [
        r"eval\(", r"exec\(", r"subprocess\.run\(.*shell=True",
        r"os\.system\(",
    ]

    # Scan Python files for signals
    root = Path(project_path)
    positive_matches = []
    negative_matches = []

    for py_file in root.rglob("*.py"):
        content = py_file.read_text(errors="ignore")
        for pattern in positive_patterns:
            if pattern in content:
                positive_matches.append(f"{py_file.name}: {pattern}")
        for pattern in negative_patterns:
            if re.search(pattern, content):
                negative_matches.append(f"{py_file.name}: {pattern}")

    positive_found = len(positive_matches) > 0
    negative_found = len(negative_matches) > 0

    return {
        "risk": "ASI-01",
        "name": "Prompt Injection",
        "triage_status": "review_likely" if positive_found and not negative_found else "review_required",
        "controls_found": positive_matches,
        "vulnerabilities": negative_matches,
        "recommendation": "Confirm validation runs before tool execution; do not treat keyword matches as compliance evidence."
    }

What passing looks like:

# GOOD: Validate before tool execution
result = policy_engine.evaluate(user_input)
if result.action == "deny":
    return "Request blocked by policy"
tool_result = await execute_tool(validated_input)

What failing looks like:

# BAD: User input goes directly to tool
tool_result = await execute_tool(user_input)  # No validation

---

Check ASI-02: Insecure Tool Use

Verify tools have allowlists, argument validation, and no unrestricted execution.

Evidence to collect: tool registry, dispatcher code, argument schemas, permission policy, denial tests, shell/network execution wrappers. Positive signals: explicit allowlists, typed argument validation, default-deny behaviour, human review for high-impact tools. Negative signals: dynamic tool names from model output, raw shell execution, unvalidated tool arguments, broad wildcard permissions. Common false positives: documented allowlists that are not enforced in the runtime dispatch path.

What to search for:

• Tool registration with explicit allowlists (not open-ended)
• Argument validation before tool execution
• No subprocess.run(shell=True) with user-controlled input
• No eval() or exec() on agent-generated code without sandbox

Passing example:

ALLOWED_TOOLS = {"search", "read_file", "create_ticket"}

def execute_tool(name: str, args: dict):
    if name not in ALLOWED_TOOLS:
        raise PermissionError(f"Tool '{name}' not in allowlist")
    # validate args...
    return tools[name](**validated_args)

---

Check ASI-03: Excessive Agency

Verify agent capabilities are bounded — not open-ended.

Evidence to collect: capability definitions, execution rings, tenant/data scopes, tool assignments, deployment permissions. Positive signals: least-privilege scopes, bounded objectives, fixed tool sets, explicit maximum autonomy levels. Negative signals: all-tools access, unrestricted filesystem/network access, broad cloud roles, unclear task boundaries. Common false positives: UI labels like "limited mode" without enforceable permission boundaries.

What to search for:

• Explicit capability lists or execution rings
• Scope limits on what the agent can access
• Principle of least privilege applied to tool access

Failing: Agent has access to all tools by default. Passing: Agent capabilities defined as a fixed allowlist, unknown tools denied.

---

Check ASI-04: Unauthorized Escalation

Verify agents cannot promote their own privileges.

Evidence to collect: role-change code, approval workflows, identity provider policies, deployment permissions, audit records for privilege changes. Positive signals: out-of-band approval, separation of duties, immutable role assignments for agent identities. Negative signals: self-editable policy files, self-managed trust scores, agent-writeable deployment configuration. Common false positives: human approval mentioned in documentation but absent from the actual escalation path.

What to search for:

• Privilege level checks before sensitive operations
• No self-promotion patterns (agent changing its own trust score or role)
• Escalation requires external attestation (human or SRE witness)

Failing: Agent can modify its own configuration or permissions. Passing: Privilege changes require out-of-band approval (e.g., Ring 0 requires SRE attestation).

---

Check ASI-05: Trust Boundary Violation

In multi-agent systems, verify that agents verify each other's identity before accepting instructions.

Evidence to collect: inter-agent protocol, identity verification, message signatures, delegation policies, trust registry, scoped credentials. Positive signals: verified sender identity, delegation narrowing, per-agent credentials, trust checks before accepting delegated work. Negative signals: string-only agent names, shared secrets, blind trust of messages, child agents receiving broader scope than parent agents. Common false positives: a trust score exists but is not consulted before delegation or tool execution.

What to search for:

• Agent identity verification (DIDs, signed tokens, API keys)
• Trust score checks before accepting delegated tasks
• No blind trust of inter-agent messages
• Delegation narrowing (child scope <= parent scope)

Passing example:

def accept_task(sender_id: str, task: dict):
    trust = trust_registry.get_trust(sender_id)
    if not trust.meets_threshold(0.7):
        raise PermissionError(f"Agent {sender_id} trust too low: {trust.current()}")
    if not verify_signature(task, sender_id):
        raise SecurityError("Task signature verification failed")
    return process_task(task)

---

Check ASI-06: Insufficient Logging

Verify all agent actions produce structured, tamper-evident audit entries.

Evidence to collect: audit schema, log storage, sample logs, retention policy, redaction rules, incident review process. Positive signals: structured records for allowed, denied, reviewed, and failed tool calls; append-only or tamper-evident storage where needed. Negative signals: print-only logs, missing denial records, logs stored in agent-writeable directories, secrets written to logs. Common false positives: observability exists for model calls but not for tool execution or policy decisions.

What to search for:

• Structured logging for every tool call (not just print statements)
• Audit entries include: timestamp, agent ID, tool name, args, result, policy decision
• Append-only or hash-chained log format
• Logs stored separately from agent-writable directories

Failing: Agent actions logged via print() or not logged at all. Passing: Structured JSONL audit trail with chain hashes, exported to secure storage.

---

Check ASI-07: Insecure Identity

Verify agents have cryptographic identity, not just string names.

Evidence to collect: identity provider configuration, credential issuance, rotation policy, signing keys, authentication middleware. Positive signals: per-agent credentials, signed requests, credential rotation, identity bound to capabilities. Negative signals: shared tokens, static names as identity, no authentication between agents and tools. Common false positives: agent display names or labels treated as authenticated identity.

Failing indicators:

• Agent identified by agent_name = "my-agent" (string only)
• No authentication between agents
• Shared credentials across agents

Passing indicators:

• DID-based identity (did:web:, did:key:)
• Ed25519 or similar cryptographic signing
• Per-agent credentials with rotation
• Identity bound to specific capabilities

---

Check ASI-08: Policy Bypass

Verify policy enforcement is deterministic — not LLM-based.

Evidence to collect: policy engine, policy files, enforcement call sites, bypass tests, fail-closed error handling. Positive signals: deterministic allow/deny/review decisions, no LLM in the enforcement path, policy cannot be skipped by prompts. Negative signals: the model decides whether an action is allowed, policy checks are optional, errors fall back to allow. Common false positives: policy text in the system prompt without runtime enforcement.

What to search for:

• Policy evaluation uses deterministic logic (YAML rules, code predicates)
• No LLM calls in the enforcement path
• Policy checks cannot be skipped or overridden by the agent
• Fail-closed behaviour (if policy check errors, action is denied)

Failing: Agent decides its own permissions via prompt ("Am I allowed to...?"). Passing: PolicyEvaluator.evaluate() returns allow/deny in <0.1ms, no LLM involved.

---

Check ASI-09: Supply Chain Integrity

Verify agent plugins and tools have integrity verification.

Evidence to collect: dependency lockfiles, plugin manifests, hashes, signatures, SBOMs, provenance metadata, review records. Positive signals: pinned dependencies, integrity manifests, signature verification, dependency scanning in CI. Negative signals: unpinned packages, plugin installation from arbitrary URLs, no review of tool or MCP server changes. Common false positives: package-lock files exist but are not enforced in CI or deployment.

What to search for:

• INTEGRITY.json or manifest files with SHA-256 hashes
• Signature verification on plugin installation
• Dependency pinning (no @latest, >= without upper bound)
• SBOM generation

---

Check ASI-10: Behavioural Anomaly

Verify the system can detect and respond to agent behavioural drift.

Evidence to collect: circuit breaker configuration, anomaly rules, kill-switch procedure, monitoring dashboards, alert history, incident runbooks. Positive signals: thresholds for repeated failures, kill switch tested, trust decay or anomaly scoring, alerts tied to response ownership. Negative signals: no emergency stop, monitoring only tracks uptime, repeated unsafe actions do not reduce autonomy. Common false positives: metrics dashboards without automated or operational response paths.

What to search for:

• Circuit breakers that trip on repeated failures
• Trust score decay over time (temporal decay)
• Kill switch or emergency stop capability
• Anomaly detection on tool call patterns (frequency, targets, timing)

Failing: No mechanism to stop a misbehaving agent automatically. Passing: Circuit breaker trips after N failures, trust decays without activity, kill switch available.

---

Compliance Report Format

# OWASP ASI Compliance Review Report
Generated: 2026-04-01
Project: my-agent-system

## Summary: 5 covered, 2 partial, 3 missing, 0 unknown

| Risk | Status | Evidence Summary |
|------|--------|------------------|
| ASI-01 Prompt Injection | covered | PolicyEngine validates input before tool calls; prompt-injection tests exist |
| ASI-02 Insecure Tool Use | covered | Tool allowlist enforced in governance.py with argument validation |
| ASI-03 Excessive Agency | covered | Execution rings limit capabilities by agent role |
| ASI-04 Unauthorised Escalation | partial | Ring promotion requires attestation, but deployment policy is not tested |
| ASI-05 Trust Boundary | missing | No identity verification between agents |
| ASI-06 Insufficient Logging | covered | AuditChain records tool calls and policy decisions with hash chaining |
| ASI-07 Insecure Identity | missing | Agents use string names, no cryptographic identity |
| ASI-08 Policy Bypass | covered | Deterministic PolicyEvaluator, no LLM in path |
| ASI-09 Supply Chain | missing | No integrity manifests or plugin signing |
| ASI-10 Behavioural Anomaly | partial | Circuit breakers exist, but kill-switch procedure is untested |

## Critical Gaps
- ASI-05: Add agent identity verification using DIDs or signed tokens
- ASI-07: Replace string agent names with cryptographic identity
- ASI-09: Generate INTEGRITY.json manifests for all plugins

## Unknowns
- Confirm whether ASI-04 escalation controls are exercised in CI or production tests
- Confirm whether ASI-10 kill-switch ownership is documented and rehearsed

## Recommendation
Prioritise ASI-05 and ASI-07 first because unverified agent identity can undermine delegation, audit, and tool governance controls. Treat ASI-09 as a separate supply-chain workstream with clear ownership.

## Open Questions
- Which agents can delegate work to other agents?
- Which tools can perform irreversible or external actions?
- Which controls have runtime evidence rather than design intent only?

---

Quick Assessment Questions

Use these to rapidly assess an agent system:

1. Does user input pass through validation before reaching any tool? (ASI-01)
2. Is there an explicit list of what tools the agent can call? (ASI-02)
3. Can the agent do anything, or are its capabilities bounded? (ASI-03)
4. Can the agent promote its own privileges? (ASI-04)
5. Do agents verify each other's identity before accepting tasks? (ASI-05)
6. Is every tool call logged with enough detail to replay it? (ASI-06)
7. Does each agent have a unique cryptographic identity? (ASI-07)
8. Is policy enforcement deterministic (not LLM-based)? (ASI-08)
9. Are plugins/tools integrity-verified before use? (ASI-09)
10. Is there a circuit breaker or kill switch? (ASI-10)

If you answer "no" to any of these, that's a gap to address.

---

Related Resources

• [TODO: verify official OWASP ASI reference URL]
• Use the local review checklist and report template in this skill folder before relying on external references.