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Related papers: Lessons from Penetration Tests on Large-Scale Agen…

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Large Language Model (LLM) agents face security vulnerabilities spanning AI-specific and traditional software domains, yet current research addresses these separately. This study bridges this gap through comparative evaluation of Function…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2025-07-10 Tarek Gasmi , Ramzi Guesmi , Ines Belhadj , Jihene Bennaceur

The benchmarks used to evaluate AI agents in security-critical roles suffer from crucial weaknesses. Building on recent empirical evidence, we characterize three core challenges that undermine security evaluations: benchmark…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-05-22 Sahar Abdelnabi , Chris Hicks , Konrad Rieck , Ahmad-Reza Sadeghi

Personal AI agents like OpenClaw run with elevated privileges on users' local machines, where a single successful prompt injection can leak credentials, redirect financial transactions, or destroy files. This threat goes well beyond…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-04-07 Bowen Wei , Yunbei Zhang , Jinhao Pan , Kai Mei , Xiao Wang , Jihun Hamm , Ziwei Zhu , Yingqiang Ge

Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents have evolved from passive predictive tools into active entities capable of autonomous decision-making and environmental interaction, driven by the reasoning capabilities of Large Language Models (LLMs).…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-03-24 Xiaolei Zhang , Lu Zhou , Xiaogang Xu , Jiafei Wu , Tianyu Du , Heqing Huang , Hao Peng , Zhe Liu

Penetration testing is a cornerstone of cybersecurity, traditionally driven by manual, time-intensive processes. As systems grow in complexity, there is a pressing need for more scalable and efficient testing methodologies. This systematic…

Software Engineering · Computer Science 2025-12-16 J. Alexander Curtis , Nasir U. Eisty

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly deployed as agentic systems that plan, memorize, and act in open-world environments. This shift brings new security problems: failures are no longer only unsafe text generation, but can become…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-03-03 Zhihang Deng , Jiaping Gui , Weinan Zhang

We empirically evaluate whether AI systems are more effective at attacking or defending in cybersecurity. Using CAI (Cybersecurity AI)'s parallel execution framework, we deployed autonomous agents in 23 Attack/Defense CTF battlegrounds.…

The increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents an opportunity to solve many socio-economic and environmental challenges; however, this cannot happen without securing AI-enabled technologies. In recent years, most AI models…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2021-02-10 Ayodeji Oseni , Nour Moustafa , Helge Janicke , Peng Liu , Zahir Tari , Athanasios Vasilakos

As AI agents powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) become increasingly versatile and capable of addressing a broad spectrum of tasks, ensuring their security has become a critical challenge. Among the most pressing threats are prompt…

Large language model-based agents are rapidly evolving from simple conversational assistants into autonomous systems capable of performing complex, professional-level tasks in various domains. While these advancements promise significant…

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) presents significant advancements but also introduces novel security challenges, particularly within agentic workflows where AI agents operate autonomously. These risks escalate in multi-agent…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2025-06-24 Sunil Kumar Jang Bahadur , Gopala Dhar

Agentic AI marks an important transition from single-step generative models to systems capable of reasoning, planning, acting, and adapting over long-lasting tasks. By integrating memory, tool use, and iterative decision cycles, these…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-01-12 Sahaya Jestus Lazer , Kshitiz Aryal , Maanak Gupta , Elisa Bertino

AI agents -- systems that combine foundation models with reasoning, planning, memory, and tool use -- are rapidly becoming a practical interface between natural-language intent and real-world computation. This survey synthesizes the…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2026-01-06 Bin Xu

Recent AI systems combine large language models with tools, external knowledge via retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and even autonomous multi-agent decision loops. This agentic AI paradigm greatly expands capabilities - but also vastly…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-03-25 Ali Dehghantanha , Sajad Homayoun

AI agents that autonomously interact with external tools and environments have shown great promise across real-world applications. However, their reliance on external data exposes them to serious indirect prompt injection attacks, where…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-05-08 Hao Li , Ruoyao Wen , Shanghao Shi , Ning Zhang , Yevgeniy Vorobeychik , Chaowei Xiao

In recent years, Large-Language-Model-driven AI agents have exhibited unprecedented intelligence and adaptability. Nowadays, agents are undergoing a new round of evolution. They no longer act as an isolated island like LLMs. Instead, they…

Increased delegation of commercial, scientific, governmental, and personal activities to AI agents -- systems capable of pursuing complex goals with limited supervision -- may exacerbate existing societal risks and introduce new risks.…

The increasing complexity and scale of modern digital environments have exposed significant gaps in traditional cybersecurity penetration testing methods, which are often time-consuming, labor-intensive, and unable to rapidly adapt to…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-09-09 Ibrahim Alshehri , Adnan Alshehri , Abdulrahman Almalki , Majed Bamardouf , Alaqsa Akbar

In the vast domain of cybersecurity, the transition from reactive defense to offensive has become critical in protecting digital infrastructures. This paper explores the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into offensive…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2024-06-13 Leroy Jacob Valencia

Generative AI systems are increasingly used not only to produce content but also to retrieve data, invoke tools, and execute actions. This work examines the security and safety implications of that shift across content-level, model-level,…

Cryptography and Security · Computer Science 2026-05-19 Zelin Zhang , Qi Li , Jie Cao , Lingshuang Liu , Jianbing Ni