AI & ML
When Approval Becomes Execution: Authorization-Grounded Workflow Attacks on Tool-Using Agents
arXiv cs.CR0 views
arXiv:2610.23077v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Tool-using language-model agents increasingly rely on local services for document access, approval management, and enterprise workflow execution. This paper studies an authorization-grounded workflow attack in the OpenClaw Agent Security Attack Competition, a controlled benchmark derived from SeClaw-style security task synthesis. Rather than using explicit policy-override instructions, the attack guides the agent through a locally coherent approval workflow: a protected document request is denied, the agent requests a normal approval token from the local approval service, and the returned token is supplied to the document service through authorized_by. Official submission traces show this pattern succeeding on three Enterprise OA document targets. We also conducted 23 controlled local validation experiments in the official OpenClaw execution environment: the original configuration reached the approval-token transition in 9/9 reruns and completed the exact target operation in 8/9 reruns, while single-component variants remained successful on the three document targets. The results provide concrete case evidence of an authorization-context gap: token possession can be treated as sufficient authorization even when requester identity, approver authority, resource scope, action type, destination or recipient, and business purpose are not jointly enforced. We present the attack pattern, controlled trace analysis, and defensive implications for context-bound tokens, service-side policy binding, agent-side authorization checks, and trace-aware benchmark design.
Source:https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.23077PreviousAspire: Practical Batch Queries on Dynamic Encrypted Database with Full Leakage SuppressionNextCryptographically Secure Agent-to-Agent Communication in Multi-Agent Systems
Related posts
The Autonomous Edge — Issue #13: Cheaper Agents, Harder Governance (Week of November 2, 2026)
0dev.to AI

Plano Físico vs Plano Funcional en AWS Networking: cómo los arquitectos senior resuelven lo que otros no ven
0dev.to AWS
We built Origami Tutor: free paper-craft lessons you can turn and replay in 3D
0dev.to WebDev
From two authorized photos to a short AI rap video (consent-first workflow)
0dev.to WebDev
Check a File Hash in the Browser, Without Uploading the File
0dev.to WebDev
Your AI keys were leaked at a platform. A local guard you can paste catches the abuse before the invoice.
0dev.to Security