How to meet it
OWASP AISVS v1.01
Orchestration & Agentic Security · Agent Authorization, Delegation, and Continuous Enforcement
Delegated authority never grows
Verify that authority derived through delegation never exceeds the delegating agent's current authority.
OWASP AISVS v1.01, requirement 9.5.7
In plain English
An agent can only pass on authority it currently has. Delegation must never give the receiving agent more power than the sender.
What good looks like
- Delegated permissions are a subset of the delegator's.
- If the delegator loses access, delegated access ends too.
- Tests try to escalate through delegation.
How teams usually do it
- Token exchange that narrows scopes on each hop.
Evidence an auditor would accept
- Token scopes along a delegation chain.
Common mistakes
- A sub-agent with its own broad credentials.
Not sure which requirements apply to your system? Take the assessment.
Requirement text from the OWASP AI Security Verification Standard, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This guidance is shared under the same licence.