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The safer approach is to give each agent a distinct identity, make its authority explicit, and record the link between the agent and any user it acts for. NIST and Microsoft describe guidance and implementation examples for doing this, but there is not yet a finalized NIST agent-identity standard.
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Why an agent’s login is an accountability question
Authentication establishes an identity; authorization determines what that identity may do. With AI agents, organizations also need to know whether an action was performed as a person, as an agent, or under authority delegated by a person.
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NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence authors Bill Fisher and Ryan Galluzzo warn that sharing human credentials can create accountability gaps as well as security, privacy, and legal issues. They recommend unique identifiers and credentials for agents, tied to the identity of the user or system operating them. They also caution that local account access may let an agent impersonate a user and inherit broad access. NIST’s August 2026 guidance explains the identity problem.
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Approval prompts alone do not solve it. If users are asked too often, they may approve reflexively, weakening the value of consent. Reserve human approval for decisions where it meaningfully changes the risk, and ensure the resulting authorization is recorded.
Three ways an agent can act
These patterns are examples documented by Microsoft, not a universal taxonomy. In each one, an organization should be able to identify the principal, its effective permissions, any delegation link, and how to suspend access.
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| Pattern | Identity and authority | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Delegated, interactive agent | The agent acts for a signed-in user using delegated permissions. Microsoft documents this with an on-behalf-of (OBO) flow. | When the task should run in the user’s context and be limited by delegated authority. |
| Autonomous agent | The agent operates under its own identity. Microsoft documents direct authentication using an agent identity and client credentials flow. | When work should proceed independently of a signed-in user, with authority assigned to the agent. |
| Agent-associated user account | A user account can optionally be paired one-to-one with an agent identity for systems that require a user object. It does not replace the agent identity. | When an application requires a user object, while preserving a distinct agent identity. |
Microsoft’s Microsoft Entra security for AI overview describes these approaches. Its flows are product-specific examples, not a rule that every organization must use Entra.
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A recognizable login is not enough if the agent can reach unrelated data or perform high-impact actions beyond its task. Broad scopes increase the consequences of compromise or error. Permissions should be limited by task, resource, data, and operation; where practical, separate read access from write access.
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Investigation also fails when records capture only the model’s response or the tool that was called. Microsoft Security notes that logs may omit who authorized an action, the role under which it ran, or whether it was within scope. A useful audit trail needs to connect the principal and delegation to the tool call, authorization decision, resource, and resulting change. See Microsoft Security’s guidance on least privilege, identity, access, and tool binding.
Controls that make agent access governable
The following controls synthesize NIST project areas and Microsoft guidance. They are practical design considerations, not a certification checklist or a guarantee of security.
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- Assign a distinct identity and owner. Give each agent a lifecycle-managed identity, a named human owner, and a documented purpose.
- Choose the authority model deliberately. Use delegated user authority when the agent must act in a user’s context; use an agent identity for autonomous work. Enforce the choice rather than relying on informal conventions.
- Limit what it can do. Grant task- and resource-specific roles, constrain access across data and operations, and allow only approved tools. Apply additional controls to writes, exports, and deletion; separate reading and writing where practical.
- Make access reviewable and revocable. Use time limits where possible, review permissions when workflows or tools change, and maintain a working process to revoke credentials or tokens and shut down access.
- Log the full chain of action. Record the agent identity, delegated user where applicable, effective role and scope, tool and action, resource, authorization result, and resulting changes.
What NIST’s standards work does—and does not—establish
In February 2026, NIST’s NCCoE published a concept paper proposing work to apply existing identity standards and practices to software and AI agents. Areas under consideration include identifying agents separately from people, authorization, linking a user identity to an agent for delegation and accountability, logging actions, and tracking data provenance. The paper discusses OAuth 2.0 and extensions, OpenID Connect, MCP, and SPIFFE/SPIRE as relevant approaches; it does not establish a finalized standard. Read the NCCoE concept paper.
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How to compare agent identity designs
When evaluating an architecture or vendor, ask whether its records and controls answer these questions:
- Does an action run as a user, an agent, or both, and is that distinction visible?
- How is delegation represented, bounded, reviewed, and revoked?
- Can permissions be limited by task, resource, data, and operation?
- Can the organization restrict tools and control writes, exports, and deletion?
- Are ownership, lifecycle, time limits, and access reviews supported?
- Can an investigator reconstruct the principal and delegation chain, scope, tool call, authorization decision, and outcome?
Product feature claims need current, independent verification. A vendor’s particular flow can illustrate a design choice without becoming a universal standard.
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