The OWASP Agentic Application Security Guide: Taking Action

In July 2025, OWASP released version 1.0 of its Securing Agentic Applications Guide, a much-needed blueprint for protecting systems powered by large language model (LLM) agents and agentic workflows, and the latest in the growing stack of international cybersecurity standards.

Suppose you’re working with AI-driven systems (and who isn’t these days) that plan, act, call tools, maintain memory, or make autonomous decisions via API. In that case, this new AI security guidance is essential reading. Traditional AppSec patterns (WAFs, code reviews, bot protection, blah) don’t cut it for agentic systems. What we’re dealing with now is identity, access, privilege, secrets, and behavior, all dynamically orchestrated, often across multi-cloud native environments—a necessary identity management evolution. 

OWASP sensibly calls for a security-first approach that spans the full lifecycle: design, build, deploy, operate. It’s time for agentic systems to be treated with the same rigour we apply to our service account security, most sensitive human identities, and privileged workflows.

The Five Pillars of Secure Agentic AI (According to OWASP)

Start with Secure Secrets Management

‍Secrets must be managed from the design phase with no hardcoded credentials. OWASP advocates the use of environment variables, dependency injection, and secrets managers like AWS Secrets Manager, GCP Secret Manager, or Vault.

Use Just-In-Time (JIT) Access and Short-Lived Credentials

‍Grant access only when it’s needed, and revoke it automatically. Temporary tokens, scoped IAM credentials, and time-limited access reduce the window of risk.

Apply Managed Identity with Granular RBAC‍

Managed identities should replace static keys or embedded credentials. Access should be role-based, tightly scoped, and regularly reviewed. Read and write access must be clearly separated.

Treat Non-Human Identities Like Humans

Every agent, tool, or automated service must have its own traceable identity, with the same level of provisioning, credential rotation, access control, and deprovisioning we expect for employees.

Monitor Runtime Behavior

LLM prompts, tool usage, memory updates, and API calls must be observable and auditable. OWASP recommends scanning for jailbreaks, policy violations, and sensitive data handling, plus integrating these into your SIEM and threat models.

Why Agentic Application Security Guidance Isn’t Just Theoretical

OWASP isn’t fearmongering. These risks are already very real:

• Agents with always-on, over-permissioned credentials create wide blast radii if compromised.
• Agent tooling can be dangerously overpowered, with APIs intended for read-only use accidentally or lazily granted write or delete permissions.
• Orphaned identities accumulate as ephemeral services are spun up and forgotten, still holding credentials.
• Secrets are often left in code repos, build configs, or container environments.
• Without monitoring, agent decisions and memory states are opaque, and anomalies go unnoticed until it’s too late.

If you’re deploying LLM-based agents into production, or even experimenting at scale, you need to get your identity, access, and secrets posture in shape. The good news is: with platforms like our own, this is easier than one might initially think.

How Trustle Enables OWASP-Aligned Agentic Application Security

Trustle brings the OWASP Agentic Application guidance into practical reach for any organization, especially SMEs and multi-cloud teams.

JIT Access & Zero Standing Privileges

Trustle makes Just-in-Time access the default. Identities, human or non-human, request access when needed, through workflows in Slack or Microsoft Teams. That access is time-bound, role-scoped, and automatically revoked. There are zero standing privileges to abuse.

This is directly aligned with OWASP’s recommendations around short-lived credentials and least privilege access in time, not just in scope.

Non-Human Identity Lifecycle Management

Machine identities are often neglected, but not with Trustle. Every agent, script, or cloud service role is treated as a first-class citizen: automatically discovered, monitored, governed, and (when needed) deprovisioned.

We ensure that every NHI has:

• Its own distinct identity
• Scoped access based on actual usage
• Full credential visibility and rotation schedules
• Lifecycle management tied to activity, not just time

No more orphaned agents lurking in cloud environments.

Secrets Hygiene by Default

Trustle integrates seamlessly with cloud-native IAM tools and encourages access via policy-driven workflows, not embedded credentials. 

Access is provisioned based on identity, context, and request, not assumed from static keys. Developers and engineers don’t need to know the secrets; they just need to request access securely.

Granular RBAC & Policy Governance

With Trustle, access control isn’t just “on or off.” You can enforce:

• Role-based access for every tool, service, and agent
• Separation of read vs write vs. admin access
• Clear privilege boundaries for each function
• Cross-cloud policy normalization (AWS, Azure, GCP, etc.)

Changes are logged. Reviews are automated. And if a role drifts from its intended purpose? You’ll know.

Runtime Observability and Audit Trails

Trustle captures who can access what, when, how, and why. For agentic systems, that visibility is gold: it means you can trace every decision back to an identity and permission.

Need to prove compliance? Trustle provides an audit-ready trail of every entitlement, access request, approval, and usage across your infrastructure.

Need to investigate an incident? You’ll have the full context in minutes, not hours.

What Should SMEs and CISOs Do Now?

Here’s a practical roadmap to align with OWASP’s guidance and harden your agentic workflows:

• Inventory all non-human identities: Agents, bots, services, ephemeral functions — all of them. Bring them into your access governance scope.
• Adopt JIT access workflows: No more always-on credentials. Use Trustle’s Slack/Teams integrations to make secure access frictionless.
• Apply RBAC with real-world granularity: Not all agents are equal. Define roles by function, limit scope, and monitor usage.
• Centralize secrets management: Remove secrets from repos and configs. Deliver them securely, via policy.
• Automate lifecycle controls: Provision, rotate, and deprovision agent identities with the same rigour you apply to employees.
• Enable full-stack observability: From access patterns to identity drift, Trustle gives you the context to detect anomalies before they become incidents.

More Than an Agentic Application Security Checklist

OWASP’s Securing Agentic Applications Guide is more than a checklist; it’s a shift in mindset. Agentic AI isn’t just about large language models. It’s about identity, autonomy, and action. Securing it requires treating agents like humans: with accountability, visibility, and control.

Part of our mission is to bring that philosophy to life. By combining zero standing privileges, identity lifecycle governance, policy-based access, and multi-cloud infrastructure entitlement management (CIEM), it reduces the attack surface and increases operational confidence. All while simplifying the day-to-day work of staying secure.

The age of agentic AI is here, and the C-Suite is clamoring for adoption. However, with OWASP’s guidance and the proper controls in place, no one has to get stung.

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