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Implementation guide OWASP AISVS v1.01

Orchestration & Agentic Security · Agent and Orchestrator Identity

Rotate agent credentials

AISVS 9.4.3 Level 3

Verify that agent identity credentials rotate on a defined schedule.

OWASP AISVS v1.01, requirement 9.4.3

In plain English

Rotate agent identity credentials on a defined schedule. A credential that never changes is useful to whoever stole it for as long as nobody notices. This is a Level 3 control.

What good looks like

  • A rotation period is defined for each kind of agent credential.
  • Rotation is automatic.
  • Old credentials stop working once replaced.
  • Rotation failures raise an alert.

How teams usually do it

  • Short-lived credentials issued by the identity platform (hours or less), which makes rotation continuous.
  • Automated certificate renewal, for example with SPIRE or cert-manager.
  • A secrets manager with scheduled rotation for anything that must remain a static secret.

Suggested evidence

  • Credential lifetimes in configuration.
  • Rotation logs.
  • A test showing an expired credential is refused.

Common mistakes

  • Rotating on paper while the old key still works.
  • Manual rotation that gets skipped when the team is busy.
  • A long-lived bootstrap secret that can mint new credentials forever.

Related requirements

9.4.1 Give each agent its own identity

Not sure which requirements apply to your system? Take the assessment, or browse every guide in this chapter.

Requirement text from the OWASP AI Security Verification Standard, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This guidance is shared under the same licence.