# Fortifying the Agentic Web: A Unified Zero-Trust Architecture Against Logic-layer Threats

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.12259 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12259/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agent threats, guardrails and governance, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use.
- Builds on 11 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Aug 2025.

## Placed in

- LLM agents and tool use / [Agent threats, guardrails and governance](https://mlsanity.com/agents/agent-threats-guardrails-and-governance/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Open Challenges in Multi-Agent Security: Towards Secure Systems of Interacting AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02077/) (2025)
- [SAGA: A Security Architecture for Governing AI Agentic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21034/) (2025)
- [Securing Agentic AI: A Comprehensive Threat Model and Mitigation Framework for Generative AI Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19956/) (2025)
- [A Novel Zero-Trust Identity Framework for Agentic AI: Decentralized Authentication and Fine-Grained Access Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.19301/) (2025)
- [Agent Name Service (ANS): A Universal Directory for Secure AI Agent Discovery and Interoperability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10609/) (2025)
- [Argos: Agentic Time-Series Anomaly Detection with Autonomous Rule Generation via Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.14170/) (2025)
- [Logic layer Prompt Control Injection (LPCI): A Novel Security Vulnerability Class in Agentic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10457/) (2025)
- [QSAF: A Novel Mitigation Framework for Cognitive Degradation in Agentic AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.15330/) (2025)
- [CPTQuant - A Novel Mixed Precision Post-Training Quantization Techniques for Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03599/) (2024)
- [The Trust Fabric: Decentralized Interoperability and Economic Coordination for the Agentic Web](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.07901/) (2025)
- [DIRF: A Framework for Digital Identity Protection and Clone Governance in Agentic AI Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.01997/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [SoK: Security of Autonomous LLM Agents in Agentic Commerce](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.15367/) (2026)
- [Attacks and Mitigations for Distributed Governance of Agentic AI under Byzantine Adversaries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12364/) (2026)
- [InterSAGE: The Secure and Verifiable Interoperability Protocol for An Internet of Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.13030/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents a Unified Security Architecture that fortifies the Agentic Web through a Zero-Trust IAM framework. This architecture is built on a foundation of rich, verifiable agent identities using Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials (VCs), with discovery managed by a protocol-agnostic Agent Name Service (ANS). Security is operationalized through a multi-layered Trust Fabric which introduces significant innovations, including Trust-Adaptive Runtime Environments (TARE), Causal Chain Auditing, and Dynamic Identity with Behavioral Attestation. By explicitly linking the LPCI threat to these enhanced architectural countermeasures within a formal security model, we propose a comprehensive and forward-looking blueprint for a secure, resilient, and trustworthy agentic ecosystem. Our formal analysis demonstrates that the proposed architecture provides provable security guarantees against LPCI attacks with bounded probability of success.