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Agent manipulated into using its legitimate credentials to act on behalf of an attacker

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How to resolve

Validate the identity and authorization of all callers before executing actions on their behalf. Use scoped credentials that cannot be reused across contexts.

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Risk

Governance/Compliance This vulnerability falls under ASI03:2026 — Identity and Privilege Abuse in the OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications. Agents inherit, reuse, or escalate identities and credentials beyond their functional scope. Security Agent manipulated into using its legitimate credentials to act on behalf of an attacker. If exploited, this can compromise the agent’s integrity, confidentiality, or availability, potentially affecting downstream systems and data.

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Explanation

Agent manipulated into using its legitimate credentials to act on behalf of an attacker. This falls under ASI03 (Identity and Privilege Abuse): Agents inherit, reuse, or escalate identities and credentials beyond their functional scope.

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Specifications

Trigger
  • Agent scan detects agent manipulated into using its legitimate credentials to act on behalf of an attacker
The scanner looks for patterns such as:
  • agent uses stored OAuth/API credentials without scope check
  • no action scope restriction on credential-bearing tools
  • broad API tool access with no per-request authorization
Severity
  • HIGH
Applies to: Agent