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1. Preserve evidence and define the incident window
Record when the behavior was detected, which run or session may be involved, the identities and systems affected, and whether activity is still underway. If a high-impact action may be continuing, take proportionate containment steps promptly; do not let evidence collection delay a necessary response. Preserve available records before routine retention, cleanup, or configuration changes remove context.
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Records to collect
- Agent traces or transcripts, including tool requests and context changes, if recorded.
- Tool-executor or server records showing whether a request was accepted, rejected, or executed.
- Identity, authorization, credential, and approval records relevant to the run.
- Audit events and current state from downstream services that own the affected resources.
- The task instructions and the tool, permission, and policy configurations effective at the time.
OWASP recommends audit trails for agent decisions and actions, including detailed records of tool invocations, context changes, and user-agent interactions. Its MCP Top 10 also warns that limited telemetry can impede incident investigation.
2. Reconstruct the action chain
Create one timeline that connects the person or service that initiated the task to the agent, its session, the proposed call, the executor’s decision, and any downstream effect. Use timestamps and stable identifiers to link records across systems. Record missing fields or gaps explicitly; a missing event in one log is not proof that the action did not happen.
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Fields to correlate when available
- Timestamp, run or session ID, agent identity, and initiating principal.
- Model turn or context-change record, if the agent stack captures it.
- Tool name, normalized arguments, and target resource.
- Authorization result, approval identifier, executor result, and response status.
- Downstream audit event or observed resource state linked to the call.
OWASP’s AI Agent Security Cheat Sheet calls for structured decision metadata and tool-call outcomes. The OWASP MCP Top 10 notes that limited telemetry from MCP servers and agents impedes investigation and response. Not every agent stack records every field above.
3. Establish what actually executed
Separate what the agent proposed from what the tool server accepted, what the tool reported, and what the downstream service shows happened. Confirm execution and effects using records from both the tool server and the service that owns the affected resource. NIST cautions that tool observability varies: some tools can be examined through existing logs or transcripts, while others need additional ways to observe their effects.
| Evidence stage | What it can establish | What it does not establish by itself |
|---|---|---|
| Agent transcript or trace | A proposed tool request or an event recorded at the agent layer. | That the executor ran the request or that a downstream resource changed. |
| Executor or tool-server record | How the tool server handled the request, as recorded by that system. | That a reported result produced a lasting effect in the system that owns the resource. |
| Downstream audit event or resource state | Evidence of an effect in the system responsible for the resource. | By itself, the full agent context, authority, or decision path that led to the effect. |
These records should be correlated rather than treated as interchangeable. NIST’s lessons on tool use in agent systems discuss observability differences across tools and environments.
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Judge the call against the task and effective controls at the time it occurred—not only against the agent’s current configuration. For the specific call, determine which identity acted, what it could access or change, which tool function it used, and whether an approval was required and obtained.
Authorization questions
- Did the call fit the original task, or did it go beyond what the user or service requested?
- Which tool functions were enabled, and what resources and read/write operations were in scope?
- Which delegated identity and credentials were used, and what authority did they carry at that time?
- Which policy version applied? Was approval required for this exact action, and is there a record of it?
- Did the downstream service independently enforce access control, or did it rely on the agent to decide whether the call was allowed?
OWASP’s LLM06:2025 Excessive Agency identifies excessive functionality, permissions, and autonomy as common causes of harmful actions. NIST also recommends evaluating tool constraints and access patterns in the deployed environment.
5. Test possible causes against the evidence
Do not infer a cause just because the action was unexpected. Treat each explanation as a hypothesis and look for artifacts that support or rule it out.
- Excessive tool access: Was a function unnecessary for the task, too open-ended, or able to reach more resources than needed?
- Overbroad or stale credentials: Did the agent or delegated identity retain authority beyond the intended task or current need?
- Weak downstream controls: Could the affected service perform the operation without independently checking authorization?
- Approval failure: Was approval missing, applied to a different action, or bypassed?
- Manipulated or misleading input: Could direct or indirect prompt injection, or unexpected tool or extension output, have influenced the action?
- Delegation or scope change: Did another agent or a context change alter the effective authority or task scope?
OWASP describes excessive functionality, permissions, and autonomy as risk factors, and also warns that unexpected or manipulated outputs can contribute to harmful actions. These are possibilities to investigate, not a diagnosis of any particular incident. See OWASP LLM06:2025 and the OWASP MCP Top 10.
6. Assess impact, persistence, and reversibility
Describe impact in terms of what the tool could access and change, what it actually touched, and what remains true now. Include data read or exposed, state changes, external communications or transactions, persistence, and any possible follow-on actions. Distinguish read-only activity from constrained writes and unrestricted writes; the tool’s potential authority and the verified effects are related but not identical.
For each affected resource, establish whether the change is still present, whether it can be reversed, and whether reversal is safe and authorized. NIST recommends considering action severity, statefulness, reversibility, tool permissions, environment trust, and monitoring when assessing agent tool use: NIST tool-use lessons.
7. Contain the unsafe path
Contain the capability that enabled the action, choosing controls that fit the system and the verified or plausible impact. Depending on the incident, that may mean stopping or restricting the affected agent or tool path, revoking or narrowing credentials, or blocking a specific downstream operation. Preserve essential evidence while doing so. Avoid indiscriminate shutdown when a narrower measure can stop the unsafe activity without unnecessarily disrupting other services.
OWASP recommends minimizing extensions and permissions, enforcing authorization downstream, and requiring human approval for high-impact actions. Its guidance on excessive agency supports restricting the authority path rather than relying on the agent to self-limit.
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8. Recover and close the control gap
Reconcile affected downstream state with authoritative records. Reverse changes only when the reversal is safe, understood, and authorized; account for any dependent actions before restoring state. Do not re-enable the capability until the failed control has been addressed.
Controls to address before re-enabling
- Remove functions the task does not need and scope permissions to the task and user.
- Enforce authorization independently for every downstream operation.
- Require approval for high-impact actions, tied to the specific action being approved.
- Improve logging, monitoring, and alerting so agent decisions, tool invocations, context changes, executor outcomes, and downstream effects can be correlated where the deployed tools support them.
- Review whether retention and observability are adequate for the tools and environment in use.
OWASP recommends least privilege, action-specific approval, audit trails, and monitoring; NIST emphasizes fitting observability to the tools and environment. See the OWASP AI Agent Security Cheat Sheet and NIST’s tool-use lessons.
What a defensible incident record should show
Close the investigation with a record that separates verified facts from unresolved questions. It should identify the relevant run and time window, the principal and effective authority, the requested and executed actions, the downstream effects, evidence sources, containment taken, and the control change made. Where logging or retention prevents reconstruction, document that limitation rather than treating absence of evidence as evidence of absence.
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