AI Security / 2026 Essentials
Give AI Agents Only the Permissions They Need
Limit functionality, privileges, and autonomy to reduce the impact of mistakes.
An agent with broad access can turn an incorrect answer into a damaging action. OWASP describes excessive agency as a combination of too much functionality, permission, or autonomy. Control the application’s actual capabilities rather than assuming that a careful prompt will prevent every misuse.
What matters
- Give read-only tools to tasks that only need to inspect information.
- Use narrowly scoped service identities instead of shared administrator credentials.
- Require meaningful confirmation for consequential actions and keep auditable action records.
Practical example: A mailbox assistant can draft a reply but cannot independently send messages to arbitrary external recipients.
One action today: Remove one unnecessary tool or privilege from an existing agent integration.