Paper outlines zero-trust cryptography for agent-to-agent messages
Original title: Cryptographically Secure Agent-to-Agent Communication in Multi-Agent Systems
The design pairs decentralized identities with hybrid post-quantum TLS, signed CBOR, and zero-knowledge task proofs.
The paper surveys impersonation, interception, malicious prompt injection, and data exfiltration in multi-agent systems. It proposes a zero-trust architecture using decentralized identifiers and task-scoped verifiable credentials on a permissioned ledger. Transport security uses mutually authenticated, crypto-agile TLS with hybrid post-quantum key establishment, while signed CBOR envelopes and zero-knowledge proofs cover integrity and declared task constraints. Context-aware monitoring of messages, tools, and telemetry is used to set risk-based trust thresholds.
- Least-privilege authorization is enforced with task-scoped verifiable credentials.
- KEMTLS with pre-distributed public keys is evaluated to reduce handshake overhead.
- Monitoring covers inter-agent messages, tool activity, and execution telemetry.
- The authors also discuss implications for other agentic protocols and prospective 6G semantic communication.
From the original article
1 min read at arxiv.orgMulti-agent systems (MAS) comprise AI agents that collaborate or compete to perform complex, distributed tasks. Their dynamic interactions create opportunities for threat actors to target and impersonate other agents, intercept messages, inject malicious prompts, and exfiltrate sensitive data while simultaneously complicating the detection of anomalous behavior through conventional monitoring.
By Karol Budzyn · arxiv.org
A short excerpt; the article and its images belong to the publisher. Summary, key facts and assessment above are AI-written from the article and can be wrong.