Beyond Prompt Injection: The Non-Human Authorization Gap in Enterprise AI

Enterprise AI multi-agent chains face a critical security gap called Delegation Escalation, where broad bearer tokens or static API keys passed through agent chains create Confused Deputy vulnerabilities. The solution is OAuth 2.1 RFC 8693 Token Exchange with explicit actor claims, enforcing three rules: delegation over impersonation (nested actor claims in JWTs), intersection of privileges (agent authority bounded by user IAM permissions), and ephemeral tokens with DPoP binding (5-minute TTL, RFC 9449). Non-human identities now outnumber human users 17-to-1 in cloud environments, making proper agentic identity governance critical for enterprise security.