Securing Multi-Agent Systems

Target: $ARGUMENTS

When to Use

Trigger this skill when:

• Conducting security reviews of agent systems
• Threat modeling for multi-agent architectures
• Reviewing plugin implementations for security
• Designing security controls for pipelines

Framework Stack

MITRE ATLAS (attack taxonomy — what adversaries do)
      |  informs threat identification
      v
OWASP MAESTRO (threat model — what to defend against in MAS)
      |  maps threats to controls
      v
NIST AI RMF (risk framework — how to govern/map/measure/manage)
      |  operationalized by
      v
ISO 42001 + 23894 (certifiable management system + risk methodology)

Use all four layers together: ATLAS enumerates attack vectors, MAESTRO maps them to MAS-specific controls, NIST AI RMF structures governance, and ISO provides the certifiable management system.

Workflow

1. Review the framework stack — references/mas-security.md for the conceptual overview of MAESTRO, ATLAS, NIST AI RMF, and ISO 42001/23894 layers working together.

2. Apply the 7-layer security check — for each new component, walk through every MAESTRO layer. See references/maestro-7-layer-checklist.md for the actionable per-layer checklist (Model → Orchestration).

3. Run the plugin security checklist — before marking an implementation complete, verify input validation, output safety, resource management, observability, and external dependencies. See references/plugin-security-checklist.md.

4. Document threats in the cross-framework matrix — for each feature, map concerns to ATLAS techniques, MAESTRO layers, NIST functions, and ISO controls. Start from references/threat-matrix-template.md and add feature-specific rows.

5. Avoid common vulnerability patterns — consult references/common-vulnerabilities.md for vulnerable/secure code examples: prompt injection (L1), type confusion (L2), resource exhaustion (L5), secret leakage (L6).

6. Test security controls explicitly — write tests that exercise each MAESTRO layer's controls. See references/security-testing-patterns.md for pytest examples (input validation, timeout enforcement, error message safety).

Further Reading

• OWASP MAESTRO v1.0
• OWASP Top 10 for LLMs
• MITRE ATLAS
• NIST AI RMF 1.0 (AI 100-1)
• NIST AI 600-1 Generative AI Profile
• ISO/IEC 42001:2023
• ISO/IEC 23894:2023
• 12-Factor Agents