AI Agent Security

Protect agentic AI systems from adversarial input, unsafe tool execution, data leakage, and privilege abuse with layered security controls.

Prerequisites

• Python 3.10+ for guardrail code examples
• Docker or Podman for sandbox execution
• OpenTelemetry collector for audit logging
• Familiarity with your agent framework (LangChain, CrewAI, Autogen, custom)
• Access to policy engine (OPA/Cedar) for permission boundaries

Threat Model — STRIDE for AI Agents

AI agents introduce a unique threat surface. Apply STRIDE specifically to agentic components:

Threat	Agent-Specific Example	Control
Spoofing	Attacker crafts input that mimics a trusted internal tool response	Signed tool responses, HMAC verification
Tampering	Prompt injection modifies agent reasoning mid-chain	Input validation, prompt armoring
Repudiation	Agent takes destructive action with no audit trail	Immutable structured logging
Information Disclosure	Agent leaks PII, secrets, or internal architecture in responses	Output filtering, content classifiers
Denial of Service	Adversarial prompt causes infinite tool loops or token exhaustion	Rate limits, token budgets, circuit breakers
Elevation of Privilege	Agent escalates from read-only to write via chained tool calls	RBAC per tool, least-privilege scoping

Key Threat Categories

Prompt Injection — Untrusted content (user input, web scrapes, document contents) manipulates the agent's system prompt or reasoning chain to execute unintended actions.

Tool Abuse — The agent calls tools in sequences or with parameters the designer did not anticipate, achieving effects beyond its intended scope.

Data Exfiltration — The agent encodes sensitive data (credentials, PII, internal IPs) into its responses, tool calls, or outbound HTTP requests.

Cross-Tenant Leakage — In multi-tenant deployments, context from one tenant's session bleeds into another through shared memory, vector stores, or cache.

Privilege Escalation — The agent chains low-privilege tool calls to achieve high-privilege outcomes (e.g., read config -> extract credentials -> call admin API).

Input Validation

Every input to an agent must be sanitized before it reaches the model or any tool. This includes user messages, tool outputs being fed back, and retrieved documents.

Prompt Injection Detection

import re
from dataclasses import dataclass
from enum import Enum

class RiskLevel(Enum):
    LOW = "low"
    MEDIUM = "medium"
    HIGH = "high"
    CRITICAL = "critical"

@dataclass
class ValidationResult:
    is_safe: bool
    risk_level: RiskLevel
    matched_rules: list[str]
    sanitized_input: str

INJECTION_PATTERNS = [
    (r"ignore\s+(all\s+)?(previous|prior|above)\s+(instructions|prompts|rules)", "instruction_override"),
    (r"you\s+are\s+now\s+(a|an|the)\s+", "role_hijack"),
    (r"system\s*:\s*", "system_prompt_inject"),
    (r"<\|?(system|im_start|endoftext)\|?>", "control_token_inject"),
    (r"\[INST\]|\[\/INST\]|<<SYS>>", "template_inject"),
    (r"(?:execute|run|eval)\s*\(", "code_execution_attempt"),
    (r"(?:curl|wget|nc|ncat)\s+", "network_command_inject"),
    (r"(?:rm\s+-rf|mkfs|dd\s+if=|chmod\s+777)", "destructive_command"),
    (r"(?:\/etc\/passwd|\/etc\/shadow|\.env\b|\.ssh\/)", "path_traversal"),
    (r"(?:BEGIN\s+(?:RSA|DSA|EC)\s+PRIVATE\s+KEY)", "secret_exfil_attempt"),
]

def validate_agent_input(user_input: str, max_length: int = 4096) -> ValidationResult:
    """Validate and sanitize input before passing to agent."""
    matched = []
    risk = RiskLevel.LOW

    # Length check
    if len(user_input) > max_length:
        matched.append("input_too_long")
        risk = RiskLevel.MEDIUM

    # Null byte and control character removal
    sanitized = user_input.replace("\x00", "")
    sanitized = re.sub(r"[\x01-\x08\x0b\x0c\x0e-\x1f]", "", sanitized)

    # Pattern matching
    for pattern, rule_name in INJECTION_PATTERNS:
        if re.search(pattern, sanitized, re.IGNORECASE):
            matched.append(rule_name)
            risk = RiskLevel.HIGH

    # Stacked injection detection (multiple suspicious patterns)
    if len(matched) >= 3:
        risk = RiskLevel.CRITICAL

    is_safe = risk in (RiskLevel.LOW, RiskLevel.MEDIUM)

    return ValidationResult(
        is_safe=is_safe,
        risk_level=risk,
        matched_rules=matched,
        sanitized_input=sanitized[:max_length] if is_safe else "",
    )

Content Classification Middleware

Use a lightweight classifier as middleware before the agent processes any input:

from functools import wraps
from typing import Callable

def input_guard(validator: Callable = validate_agent_input):
    """Decorator that guards agent entry points against unsafe input."""
    def decorator(func):
        @wraps(func)
        async def wrapper(user_input: str, *args, **kwargs):
            result = validator(user_input)

            if result.risk_level == RiskLevel.CRITICAL:
                await log_security_event(
                    event="input_blocked",
                    risk=result.risk_level.value,
                    rules=result.matched_rules,
                    input_hash=hashlib.sha256(user_input.encode()).hexdigest(),
                )
                raise InputRejectedError(
                    f"Input blocked: matched {result.matched_rules}"
                )

            if result.risk_level == RiskLevel.HIGH:
                await log_security_event(
                    event="input_flagged",
                    risk=result.risk_level.value,
                    rules=result.matched_rules,
                )
                # Allow through but flag for review
                kwargs["_security_flags"] = result.matched_rules

            return await func(result.sanitized_input, *args, **kwargs)
        return wrapper
    return decorator

# Usage
@input_guard()
async def handle_user_message(message: str, session_id: str, **kwargs):
    """Process a validated user message through the agent."""
    flags = kwargs.get("_security_flags", [])
    if flags:
        # Route to sandboxed execution path
        return await agent.run_sandboxed(message, session_id)
    return await agent.run(message, session_id)

Tool Execution Sandboxing

Never let an agent execute tools directly on the host. Isolate every tool invocation inside a sandbox.

Docker Sandbox Configuration

# docker-compose.agent-sandbox.yml
version: "3.8"

services:
  agent-sandbox:
    image: agent-tools:latest
    read_only: true
    security_opt:
      - no-new-privileges:true
      - seccomp:seccomp-profile.json
    cap_drop:
      - ALL
    cap_add:
      - NET_BIND_SERVICE   # Only if tool needs network
    tmpfs:
      - /tmp:size=64M,noexec,nosuid
    mem_limit: 512m
    cpus: "0.5"
    pids_limit: 64
    networks:
      - sandbox-net
    environment:
      - TOOL_TIMEOUT=30
      - MAX_OUTPUT_BYTES=65536
    volumes:
      - type: bind
        source: ./tool-workspace
        target: /workspace
        read_only: false
    dns:
      - 127.0.0.1           # Block external DNS by default

networks:
  sandbox-net:
    driver: bridge
    internal: true           # No external network access

gVisor Runtime for Stronger Isolation

# Install gVisor runsc runtime
curl -fsSL https://gvisor.dev/archive.key | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/gvisor-archive-keyring.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/gvisor-archive-keyring.gpg] https://storage.googleapis.com/gvisor/releases release main" | \
  sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gvisor.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y runsc

# Configure Docker to use gVisor
cat <<'EOF' | sudo tee /etc/docker/daemon.json
{
  "runtimes": {
    "runsc": {
      "path": "/usr/bin/runsc",
      "runtimeArgs": [
        "--network=none",
        "--directfs=false"
      ]
    }
  }
}
EOF
sudo systemctl restart docker

# Run agent sandbox with gVisor
docker run --runtime=runsc --rm \
  --read-only \
  --memory=512m \
  --cpus=0.5 \
  --pids-limit=64 \
  agent-tools:latest \
  python /tools/execute.py --tool="$TOOL_NAME" --args="$TOOL_ARGS"

Tool Allowlist Enforcement

from dataclasses import dataclass, field

@dataclass
class ToolPolicy:
    name: str
    allowed_args: dict[str, type]     # parameter name -> expected type
    max_calls_per_session: int = 10
    requires_approval: bool = False
    allowed_patterns: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)
    blocked_patterns: list[str] = field(default_factory=list)

TOOL_ALLOWLIST: dict[str, ToolPolicy] = {
    "read_file": ToolPolicy(
        name="read_file",
        allowed_args={"path": str},
        max_calls_per_session=20,
        allowed_patterns=[r"^/workspace/", r"^/data/public/"],
        blocked_patterns=[r"\.env$", r"\.key$", r"\.pem$", r"/etc/", r"/proc/"],
    ),
    "run_query": ToolPolicy(
        name="run_query",
        allowed_args={"sql": str, "database": str},
        max_calls_per_session=5,
        allowed_patterns=[r"^SELECT\s", r"^EXPLAIN\s"],
        blocked_patterns=[r"\bDROP\b", r"\bDELETE\b", r"\bUPDATE\b", r"\bINSERT\b", r"\bALTER\b"],
    ),
    "http_request": ToolPolicy(
        name="http_request",
        allowed_args={"url": str, "method": str},
        max_calls_per_session=10,
        requires_approval=True,
        allowed_patterns=[r"^https://api\.internal\."],
        blocked_patterns=[r"^https?://169\.254\.", r"^https?://metadata\.google\."],
    ),
    "execute_code": ToolPolicy(
        name="execute_code",
        allowed_args={"code": str, "language": str},
        max_calls_per_session=3,
        requires_approval=True,
        blocked_patterns=[r"import\s+subprocess", r"import\s+os", r"__import__", r"eval\(", r"exec\("],
    ),
}

class ToolGatekeeper:
    def __init__(self, allowlist: dict[str, ToolPolicy]):
        self.allowlist = allowlist
        self.call_counts: dict[str, int] = {}

    async def authorize(self, tool_name: str, args: dict) -> bool:
        if tool_name not in self.allowlist:
            await log_security_event(
                event="tool_denied_not_in_allowlist",
                tool=tool_name,
            )
            return False

        policy = self.allowlist[tool_name]

        # Check call count
        count = self.call_counts.get(tool_name, 0)
        if count >= policy.max_calls_per_session:
            await log_security_event(
                event="tool_denied_rate_limit",
                tool=tool_name,
                count=count,
            )
            return False

        # Validate argument types
        for arg_name, expected_type in policy.allowed_args.items():
            if arg_name in args and not isinstance(args[arg_name], expected_type):
                return False

        # Check patterns against all string arguments
        for arg_value in args.values():
            if not isinstance(arg_value, str):
                continue
            # Must match at least one allowed pattern (if any defined)
            if policy.allowed_patterns:
                if not any(re.search(p, arg_value, re.IGNORECASE) for p in policy.allowed_patterns):
                    return False
            # Must not match any blocked pattern
            if any(re.search(p, arg_value, re.IGNORECASE) for p in policy.blocked_patterns):
                await log_security_event(
                    event="tool_denied_blocked_pattern",
                    tool=tool_name,
                    arg_value_hash=hashlib.sha256(arg_value.encode()).hexdigest(),
                )
                return False

        self.call_counts[tool_name] = count + 1
        return True

Contents

• Permission Boundaries
• Output Filtering
• Audit Logging
• Rate Limiting and Abuse Prevention
• Kill Switches and Circuit Breakers
• Red Team Checklist
• Incident Response Playbook
• Troubleshooting
• Best Practices
• Related Skills

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Building AI agents that invoke tools, APIs, or shell commands
• Deploying agents with access to production databases, cloud accounts, or internal services
• Hardening multi-tenant agent platforms against cross-tenant data leakage
• Adding guardrails to autonomous coding agents or SRE bots
• Designing approval workflows for high-risk agent actions
• Conducting red-team exercises against agentic systems
• Responding to incidents involving compromised or misbehaving agents

Limitations

• Apply guidance only within authorized scope; test destructive steps in non-production first.
• Docs-only import: upstream scripts and templates not bundled.

Example

# Read-only first: inventory before any active step.
which <tool> && <tool> --help | head -n 20

Adapted from BagelHole/DevOps-Security-Agent-Skills (MIT); frontmatter, When to Use/Limitations, and safety boundaries added for upstream compliance. Docs-only import: helper scripts and templates not bundled.