Implementation guide OWASP AISVS v1.01

AI-Assisted Secure Coding (Appendix C) · Autonomous Agent Change Control Constraints

Separate people or systems at each stage

AISVS AC.8.4 Level 3

Verify that separation of duties holds across the stages of an AI-generated change. Each stage (generation, review, approval, deployment) is performed by a distinct principal, whether human or system.

OWASP AISVS v1.01, requirement AC.8.4

In plain English

An AI-generated change passes through four stages: generation, review, approval and deployment. A different principal, human or system, should perform each one. Then no single compromised identity can take a change from idea to production. This is a Level 3 control.

What good looks like

  • Each of the four stages is carried out by a distinct identity.
  • Tooling enforces the separation and records who did what.
  • A single identity that appears in two stages of one change is blocked or flagged.
  • Exceptions are recorded and approved.

How teams usually do it

  • Separate identities and credentials per stage, with a pipeline check that compares the identities recorded in the change's provenance.
  • Deployment environments with required reviewers who are neither author nor approver.
  • The same identity rules applied to AI reviewers: a different system from the one that generated the code.

Suggested evidence

  • The pipeline design and identity mapping.
  • Provenance for one change showing four distinct principals.

Common mistakes

  • One service account that generates and deploys.
  • The same model instance, under two names, acting as author and reviewer.

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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.