Reducing Attack Surface & Evaluating Efficiency in Agents - Itamar Apelblat, David Goldschlag - ASW #389

About this episode

SquidBleed reveals another vuln that's been lurking for decades, but its real lesson is in managing an attack surface. Regardless of whatever programming language you use, removing code is one of the best security steps you can take, followed by changing default configs to turn off uncommon features and ancient protocols.

The Linux kernel's removal of strncpy is another example of managing attack surface by replacing a notoriously misused and ambiguous function with more specific versions that better match the developers intent. It was a six-year journey for the kernel, but one that should remove a class of vulns and, importantly, improve performance.

Then it's on to agents with a discussion of the newly released OWASP AISVS and yet another example of evaluating LLMs as code reviewers.

Agentic AI Has an Identity Problem

AI agents are already running inside enterprise environments, operating on credentials, API tokens, and cloud roles that most security teams have never inventoried. When an agent acts autonomously across production systems, the security question is no longer just what it can do but who it is and whether that identity is governed at all. Itamar Apelblat, Co-Founder and CEO of Token Security, discusses why identity is the right lens for understanding agentic AI risk and what practical steps security teams can take now.

Segment Resources:

• https://www.token.security/product
• https://www.token.security/lp/ai-agent-identity-security-buyers-guide-ebook
• https://www.token.security/enzo
• https://www.token.security/ai-agent-calculator

This segment is sponsored by Token Security. To lean more, visit https://securityweekly.com/tokenidv

Blended Identities and the challenge of IAM for AI

AI agents aren't quite human and aren't traditional machines. So how do you secure workflows that involve humans using AI to access sensitive data, and do it at machine speed and scale? David breaks down the challenges and discusses actual implementations of IAM for AI to explain how to solve them.

Segment Resources:

• https://aembit.io/case-study/a-300b-investment-firm-secures-claude-access-with-aembit/
• https://aembit.io/blog/aembit-now-secures-microsoft-copilot-studio-agents/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSInzRUXvNc

This segment is sponsored by Aembit. Get the cloud security alliance survey on AI Identities at https://securityweekly.com/aembitidv

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Show Notes: https://securityweekly.com/asw-389