IAM for AI Agents: A Distinct Problem or Just RBAC with Extra Steps?
Prestigious-Run-1954 · reddit · 2026-08-07
The author explores a novel security and accuracy failure mode for AI agents in production: even if an agent passes traditional Identity and Access Management (IAM) checks, the specific action taken or data returned can still be dangerous.
Typical scenarios include:
- Data crossing boundaries: A support AI resolves a query to the wrong linked entity within legitimately accessible data.
- Accidental inheritance/expansion: A subagent spun up by an orchestrator inherits or expands permissions never explicitly granted.
- Destructive actions: An agent has the technical access and valid credentials to execute destructive actions (like delete/write) autonomously, which was never intended.
The author asks if anyone has encountered this in production, whether it's a gateway-level issue, or if the industry is simply eating the risk.
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