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NCCoE Concept Paper Response · Submitted March 4, 2026

Accelerating the Adoption of Software and AI Agent Identity and Authorization

A 12-page technical response proposing Attested Governance Artifacts as the cryptographic enforcement layer for AI agent identity binding, continuous runtime authorization, and offline-verifiable audit evidence.

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Overview

This submission responds to the NCCoE concept paper on AI Agent Identity and Authorization by mapping Attested Governance Artifacts across six technical categories. It demonstrates how sealed policy artifacts, signed enforcement receipts, and tamper-evident continuity chains address identity binding, runtime authorization, and non-repudiation for autonomous AI agent systems.

Topics Addressed

Section 1

Use Cases & Scenarios

Threat landscape for autonomous AI agents including credential theft, phantom execution, and post-hoc fabrication attacks.

Section 2

Identification & Binding

Cryptographic identity binding through sealed policy artifacts with Ed25519 signatures and SHA-256 continuity chains.

Section 3

Authentication Mechanisms

Continuous runtime authentication via integrity measurements at every tool call, not just session initiation.

Section 4

Authorization Frameworks

Portal-enforced authorization where policy artifacts define permitted operations before execution begins.

Section 5

Auditing & Non-Repudiation

Tamper-evident continuity chains and offline-verifiable evidence bundles for air-gapped audit environments.

Section 6

Prompt Injection Defenses

Behavioral drift detection through runtime measurement of tool-call patterns against sealed baseline profiles.

Section 7

Proposed Lab Demonstration

A four-phase demonstration protocol for the NCCoE lab environment covering artifact creation and sealing, runtime enforcement with drift detection, evidence bundle generation, and offline third-party verification.

Phase 1Seal & Attest
Phase 2Enforce & Measure
Phase 3Bundle & Export
Phase 4Verify Offline

Standards Referenced

NIST SP 800-207 (Zero Trust)NIST SP 800-204 (Microservices Security)NIST SP 800-218 (SSDF)NIST AI RMF 1.0