Shadow agent detection

Find agent execution paths missing ownership and policy registration.

01 / Attack path

How the boundary is crossed

A developer runs an external agent with a personal token against a production repository.

Attack path and interception point
  1. 01Lower-trust input
  2. 02Attempted instruction
  3. 03Protected action
  4. 04Enforced decision

02 / Containment

Where bounded authority limits the effect

Compare API and identity telemetry against approved agent registry, classify unknown callers and restrict consequential effects.

03 / Failure and evidence

The attacker’s opportunity and the defender’s record

Exploit condition

A shared human token hides the autonomous actor from monitoring.

Evidence to retain

Capture observed credential, client signature, resource access, investigation and containment.

04 / Canonical scope

Why this reference stands alone

Discovery surveys all agents; this page owns unapproved deployments and response.

Technical artifact

Detect a personal-token agent

Conceptual trace
approved agent registry: no matching principal
API telemetry: personal token U7, high-frequency tool-shaped calls
resource: production repository
classification: possible shadow agent
response: verify owner, restrict privileged methods

Run the denial test

Use the same human credential from a scripted agent and from an interactive shell. Do not claim perfect attribution; require corroborating runtime and usage signals before response.

Primary references

Read the underlying material

Architecture discussion

Choose one consequential action and make its boundary explicit.

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