AI-Assisted Secure Coding (Appendix C) · Autonomous Agent Change Control Constraints
Agents can't approve their own work
Verify that autonomous agents cannot approve, merge, sign, or deploy artifacts that they themselves generated, and that this constraint is enforced by the source-control system, the CI system, and the artifact registry. Policy alone does not satisfy this control.
OWASP AISVS v1.01, requirement AC.8.1
In plain English
An autonomous agent must not be able to approve, merge, sign or deploy anything it generated. Source control, CI and the artifact registry must enforce this; a policy statement is not enough.
What good looks like
- The agent's identity cannot approve its own PRs.
- It cannot sign or deploy its own artifacts.
- All three systems enforce it.
How teams usually do it
- Separate bot identities with permissions that exclude approval and deployment.
Evidence an auditor would accept
- Identity permissions in each system.
Common mistakes
- An agent account with admin rights so it can "fix its own PRs".
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.