How to meet it
OWASP AISVS v1.01
Orchestration & Agentic Security · Shutdown and Graceful Degradation
Kill switch on a separate channel
Verify that kill-switch commands are implemented through an out-of-band channel that is isolated from the agent runtime.
OWASP AISVS v1.01, requirement 9.6.3
In plain English
Send kill-switch commands through a separate channel the agent runtime cannot block or change.
What good looks like
- The kill switch does not depend on the agent runtime being healthy.
- The agent cannot read or modify the channel.
- It is tested with a stuck runtime.
How teams usually do it
- Revoking credentials or cutting network access at the platform level.
Evidence an auditor would accept
- Design and test record.
Common mistakes
- A kill switch implemented as a message to the agent.
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Requirement text from the OWASP AI Security Verification Standard, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This guidance is shared under the same licence.