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Freedom251 › Blog › AI security

Enterprise Firewall and Identity Settings That Limit AI Attack Agents

By Freedom251 Team · · 12 min read

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Contain an autonomous AI agent by combining a unique, accountable identity with task-scoped authorization, default-deny tool access, Conditional Access, short-lived credentials, segmented network paths, runtime isolation, approval gates and detailed telemetry. A firewall alone cannot stop an agent that already has valid credentials, and identity controls cannot contain a compromised connector that can reach every internal service. The controls must enforce the same narrow scope at identity, tool, network and runtime layers.

What an enterprise control stack must accomplish

An AI agent can read data, call APIs, delegate work to other agents and take actions at machine speed. If it inherits a broad human identity or a long-lived service credential, a prompt injection, stolen token or compromised integration can turn a narrowly intended task into lateral movement. The practical objective is therefore not to “block AI” at the perimeter. It is to make every action attributable, limited to an approved purpose and easy to stop.

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  • Accountability: each agent, plugin and callable tool has a distinct identity, named owner and auditable activity.
  • Least privilege: the agent receives only the tools, data, operations and tenant paths required for its current task.
  • Containment: firewalls, VPC controls, microsegmentation and runtime sandboxes restrict what a compromised agent can reach or execute.
  • Human control: irreversible or high-impact actions require a fresh approval, and operators can pause or terminate execution.
  • Evidence and recovery: identity, policy, tool-call, resource and output events support detection, investigation and rapid revocation.

These layers address different failure modes. Network rules constrain destinations; authorization decides whether a particular operation is allowed; runtime isolation limits what code can execute; monitoring shows what actually happened.

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Give every agent a verifiable identity

Create one identity per deployed agent

Do not copy a human administrator’s identity into an autonomous workflow. Register each deployed agent as its own workload identity, managed identity or federated identity. Record a named owner or sponsor, business purpose, approved data classes, tool dependencies, operating environment and expected lifetime. A separate identity lets security teams answer which agent made a request, revoke that agent without disabling a person, and detect behavior that differs from its declared role.

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Microsoft’s identity guidance states that every user, agent, plugin and callable tool should receive a verified identity, explicit authorization and the minimum rights required. Treat that as a design requirement rather than an inventory exercise: an orchestration service, retrieval connector and action tool should not all appear as one indistinguishable principal.

Authenticate the agent endpoint

For deployed agents, require authentication at the service endpoint using Microsoft Entra. Validate the workload identity before accepting a prompt, tool request or callback. Bind the authenticated principal to an execution or correlation ID so downstream systems can distinguish separate runs by the same agent.

Use managed or federated workload identities where possible. They avoid embedding reusable secrets in prompts, code or configuration files. When a secret is unavoidable, store it in a controlled secret system, restrict who can retrieve it and rotate it on a schedule tied to the agent’s risk.

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Apply Conditional Access to both principal types

Conditional Access must cover the agent identity object and any paired agent user account separately. A policy aimed at a user object does not automatically protect an agent object, and the reverse is also true. Define policies for the signals your identity platform can evaluate, including:

  • unfamiliar resource access;
  • unusual sign-in spikes;
  • repeated failed-access probing;
  • confirmed compromise or elevated risk;
  • access from an unexpected network or execution environment.

For a high-risk signal, block the agent identity, require a new approval or force reauthentication rather than allowing the run to continue with an old token. Apply the same scrutiny to a user who can steer an agent; otherwise an attacker can use a legitimate human session to bypass controls attached only to the workload identity.

Define agent-to-agent trust explicitly

Agent delegation should be an allow-list, not an implicit feature of the orchestration platform. Name which agent may call which other agent, the data it may pass, the maximum request rate and the maximum volume of records or tokens. Pass the initiating principal and original correlation ID through every hop. A downstream agent should not receive a broader scope merely because an upstream agent requested it.

Set lifecycle ownership and expiration

Register an owner, review date and decommission condition for every agent. Expire identities for pilots and temporary projects automatically. At review time, verify that the documented purpose, data access, tool list and operating environment still match reality. Test the complete off-boarding path: disable the agent, rotate or delete credentials, invalidate outstanding tokens and remove stale group, role and application permissions.

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Enforce task-scoped authorization

Start with default deny

Allow only the minimum tools, data and operations required for the declared task; deny everything else by default. An agent that summarizes tickets may need read access to a specific queue and no ability to send mail, alter permissions or query another tenant. An agent that deploys code may need a narrowly scoped deployment API but not unrestricted shell access to production hosts.

Review these boundaries at four levels:

  • Task: what objective is this run authorized to complete?
  • Tool: which functions, plugins and connectors can it invoke?
  • Data: which records, fields, repositories or storage locations can it read or write?
  • Tenant and environment: which accounts, subscriptions, projects, regions and production stages are in scope?

Deny unreviewed plugins, integrations, guest paths and cross-tenant routes. Keep administrative interfaces on a separate path from ordinary agent traffic.

Use short-lived, narrowly scoped tokens

Issue tokens for the specific task and audience, with the smallest practical lifetime and scope. Bind them to the agent identity and execution context. Do not place a broad refresh token in an agent’s working memory when a single-use or short-lived access token can perform the operation. Revoke tokens when risk rises, when the run ends or when the agent is paused.

Authorize every tool invocation

Treat a tool call as a new authorization decision tied to the initiating principal, target resource and exact operation. The policy decision should see the agent identity, delegated user (if any), current task, requested parameters, destination and risk level. A prior approval to “work on an order” must not silently authorize deleting the order, issuing a refund or changing a customer’s permissions.

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When an agent orchestrates a downstream call, limit the downstream operation scope instead of forwarding the upstream token unchanged. Preserve the original principal and correlation ID so investigators can follow the chain.

Insert approval gates for consequential actions

Require a fresh human approval before the agent sends external messages, deletes data, purchases goods or services, deploys changes, alters permissions or performs another irreversible or high-impact operation. Display the exact target, parameters, affected records and predicted side effects to the approver. Expire an approval quickly and bind it to the specific operation; a generic “approved” flag is too easy to reuse after the context changes.

Provide a reliable pause and kill mechanism that does not depend on the agent cooperating. The control plane should be able to stop new tool calls, terminate active runs, revoke tokens and block network paths.

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Use firewall and network controls as containment

Place agents in segmented zones

Put the agent runtime and its tool connectors in dedicated network zones. Separate development, test and production. Separate the orchestration plane, data plane and administrative plane so a compromised connector cannot reach management interfaces simply because it runs in the same VPC or virtual network.

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Use deny-by-default security-group and firewall rules. Permit only the destinations the workload requires: approved model endpoints, APIs, package or container registries, data stores and management services. Restrict destination ports, protocols, regions and service identities where the platform supports those conditions. Block direct internet egress unless a documented dependency requires it, and route approved outbound traffic through an inspected gateway.

Combine identity-aware and network-aware rules

A network rule should identify the workload or service identity, not merely trust an IP address that can later be reused. Pair security-group rules, network firewalls, API gateways and service-to-service authorization. Keep a separate administrative path that is inaccessible from the agent subnet and require stronger controls for operators using it.

NIST SP 1800-35, published in June 2025, identifies identity and access management, enhanced identity governance, microsegmentation, secure access service edge and software-defined perimeter technologies as implementation options for zero-trust architectures. These technologies are complementary: a software-defined perimeter can make access conditional on identity and context, while microsegmentation limits lateral movement after access is granted.

Apply cloud-native controls in layers

AWS describes a layered combination of AWS Network Firewall, Amazon VPC, AWS Shield and Bedrock AgentCore Runtime. The exact configuration depends on the workload, but the pattern is broadly useful: VPC and subnet boundaries establish reachability, network firewall rules inspect and restrict flows, edge protection absorbs hostile traffic, and the agent runtime supplies execution controls. Amazon Cognito can authenticate and authorize end users without requiring the agent to impersonate them.

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Network controls do not replace authorization. An agent may be able to reach an API endpoint while still being denied the particular method, record or operation by the API’s policy layer.

Isolate execution as well as traffic

Runtime isolation and sandboxing constrain what an agent can execute; firewalls constrain where it can connect. Use a sandbox with a restricted filesystem, disabled privileged operations, bounded CPU and memory, and no access to host credentials. Keep temporary files and downloaded code inside the isolated environment. Microsoft’s AI defense catalog treats runtime isolation and sandboxing, identity and least privilege, monitoring and resource-abuse prevention as separate capability families because each addresses a different escape path.

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Collect telemetry that can prove what happened

Record authentication and action events for every agent. At minimum, capture the agent identity, owner, delegated user or initiating principal, effective permissions, policy decision, target resource, tool name and parameters, correlation ID, timestamp, network destination and output classification. Preserve enough context to reconstruct the complete chain without logging sensitive payloads unnecessarily; redact secrets while retaining hashes or references that allow correlation.

Alert on behavior that conflicts with the agent’s declared purpose:

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  • access to unfamiliar resources or new tenants;
  • sign-in spikes or geographic and network changes;
  • repeated failed-access probing;
  • attempts to bypass policy or invoke denied tools;
  • unusual tool sequences, request rates or data volumes;
  • attempts to read restricted data or contact unapproved destinations;
  • unexpected output, such as secrets, bulk exports or executable content.

Send identity, API gateway, firewall, runtime and data-access events to the same security monitoring system or connect them with a common correlation ID. A firewall log showing an allowed connection is not enough; investigators also need to know which tool requested it, under whose authority and whether the resulting output was returned to a user or another agent.

Prepare a revocation and incident-response playbook

  1. Contain the principal: disable the agent identity and any paired user account suspected of compromise.
  2. Invalidate access: revoke active tokens, rotate credentials and remove emergency grants.
  3. Stop execution: pause or terminate running jobs through the control plane.
  4. Block paths: remove temporary firewall and security-group allowances, block suspicious destinations and isolate the runtime zone.
  5. Preserve evidence: retain authentication, policy, tool-call, resource and output records linked by correlation ID.
  6. Remove persistence: delete unauthorized plugins, integrations, scheduled jobs, delegated permissions and stale group membership.
  7. Restore narrowly: re-enable only after reviewing the cause, rotating credentials and testing that denied actions remain denied.

Exercise this procedure before production launch. A control that exists only in a runbook but has never disabled an active agent can fail under pressure.

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A practical implementation sequence

1. Inventory principals and flows

List every deployed agent, paired user account, plugin, connector, model endpoint, data store and downstream agent. Draw the normal call path and mark every place where identity or authorization changes.

2. Register ownership and purpose

Assign an owner, sponsor, business purpose, data classification, operating environment and expiration date. Reject production deployment when these fields are missing.

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3. Replace shared credentials

Issue a unique managed or federated workload identity per agent. Remove copied human credentials, hard-coded secrets and broad shared service accounts.

4. Define the authorization contract

Write the allowed tasks, tools, data, tenants, operations, rate limits and volume limits. Set default deny for everything outside that contract.

5. Configure Conditional Access

Apply policies independently to agent identities and paired user accounts. Decide which risk signals block, challenge or require fresh approval.

6. Build network and runtime boundaries

Place runtimes and connectors in segmented zones, restrict egress to approved destinations, separate administration and enforce sandbox limits.

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7. Add approval and stop controls

Gate irreversible operations, provide a human-readable approval screen and verify that operators can pause runs, revoke tokens and terminate execution.

8. Validate telemetry and recovery

Generate test events for allowed and denied calls, confirm that logs contain the required fields, then rehearse disablement, token revocation, credential rotation and firewall blocking.

How to compare implementation options

When evaluating an enterprise design, compare the enforcement point and operational coverage rather than choosing a single “AI firewall.”

Control layer What it should enforce Evidence to verify
Identity provider Unique agent identity, ownership, authentication, Conditional Access and lifecycle state Principal ID, owner, risk decision, token issuance and revocation records
API gateway or tool broker Per-call authorization, tool and operation allow-lists, rate and volume limits Initiating principal, exact method, parameters, policy result and correlation ID
Firewall, VPC or microsegmentation Reachability, egress destinations, service identities and separation of runtime and administration Allowed and denied flows, destination, port, identity and rule version
Runtime sandbox Filesystem, process, network, resource and code-execution boundaries Sandbox policy, violations, resource usage and termination events
Human-control plane Approval, pause, kill and emergency revocation for high-impact actions Approver, approved parameters, expiry, stop event and resulting state
Monitoring and SIEM Cross-layer correlation, anomaly detection and investigation Identity, tool-call, context, resource and output evidence joined by one ID
Lifecycle operations Registration, expiration, credential rotation, decommissioning and stale-permission removal Review dates, change history, disablement tests and deletion records

Also measure integration burden. A design that requires separate policy languages, disconnected logs and manual revocation across every cloud may be difficult to operate consistently. Prefer controls that can feed existing identity, SIEM, firewall and cloud-management processes without weakening the agent-specific boundaries.

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Common failure modes and fixes

  • One service account for many agents: split identities so ownership, scope and revocation are per agent.
  • Conditional Access protects only employees: create policies for agent identity objects and paired user accounts.
  • Firewall allow-list is broad: replace “any destination in the VPC” with approved services, ports and identities.
  • Approval happens once at session start: require a fresh, operation-specific decision for irreversible actions.
  • Downstream calls inherit full upstream scope: mint a narrower downstream authorization tied to the initiating principal.
  • Logs omit tool parameters or delegated user: capture effective scope, target, operation and correlation data while redacting secrets.
  • Stopping an agent leaves tokens valid: make disablement, token invalidation, credential rotation and network blocking one tested procedure.
  • Runtime is trusted because the network is segmented: add sandboxing and resource-abuse controls; segmentation does not prevent malicious code execution inside an allowed zone.

Operational checklist

  • Every agent, plugin and callable tool has a unique verified identity.
  • Each identity has a named owner, documented purpose, approved data access and expiration or review date.
  • Authentication is required at the deployed endpoint.
  • Conditional Access covers agent objects and paired user accounts independently.
  • Tokens are short-lived, scoped and revocable.
  • Tool, data, tenant, rate and volume permissions default to deny.
  • Agent-to-agent trust and downstream scope are explicitly defined.
  • High-impact actions require operation-specific approval.
  • Agents and connectors run in segmented zones with restricted egress.
  • Runtime sandboxing limits code, filesystem, process and resource access.
  • Telemetry records identity, effective permissions, tool calls, resources, outputs, policy decisions and correlation IDs.
  • Response procedures can disable identities, revoke tokens, rotate credentials, remove stale permissions and block network paths.
  • Disablement and recovery have been tested with a live or representative agent.

The strongest defense is layered enforcement: identity establishes who the agent is, authorization defines what this run may do, network controls limit where it can go, runtime isolation limits what it can execute, and telemetry makes every decision recoverable. Together these settings reduce the blast radius of a stolen credential, malicious instruction or compromised connector without preventing legitimate automation.

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