A recent incident in which an AI agent deleted an entire company database and its backups without human confirmation sparked broad discussion. Although the company had set rules such as “Do not run destructive commands” and “Do not make irreversible decisions independently,” the AI agent still went out of control and caused serious consequences. As AI moves beyond responding to prompts and begins calling tools, accessing data, and executing system operations, organizations need to look beyond whether the AI itself is secure and examine what the AI can actually do on endpoints.
AI agents have become a new attack surface
The key difference between AI agents and general AI tools is that AI agents do not only respond to instructions. They can reason, plan, and act. When a user enters a prompt, “language” becomes an interface for tools and systems to execute actions. This ease of use also creates new attack methods that existing defense mechanisms may not fully address.
The challenge is that an AI agent’s reasoning, task breakdown, and autonomous decisions may not always be predictable or traceable. Once execution deviates from expectations, accountability can also become difficult to determine. If an AI agent is affected by hidden commands or malicious skills and then accesses API keys or database credentials, data access or system operations that should have remained controlled may turn into unexpected behavior.
To gain a complete view of endpoint and AI agent risks, organizations can use standardized assessment to examine their environments through four steps:
- Asset inventory: Identify endpoint devices, systems, and AI agent deployment and usage.
- Risk identification: Detect vulnerabilities, misconfigurations, and potential AI agent risks.
- Risk prioritization: Determine remediation priorities based on severity.
- Response decision: Use risk insights and remediation guidance to support follow-up actions.
This process helps organizations assess endpoint risks in a consistent way and turn assessment results into a practical basis for vulnerability remediation, resource allocation, and management decisions.
ThreatSonar Plus: Eliminating security blind spots through automated risk assessment
ThreatSonar Plus is a comprehensive endpoint risk assessment platform that enables organizations to perform a one-time assessment to inventory assets, detect risks, and support risk evaluation. It helps organizations address emerging risks in endpoint environments as AI agents become part of daily operations. Its assessment scope includes:
- Comprehensive asset and AI agent inventory: Inventories endpoint devices, operating systems, applications, and AI agent deployment and usage, providing visibility into asset distribution and AI agent usage for subsequent risk analysis and management.
- AI agent risk assessment: Assesses AI agent risks related to sensitive data exposure, malicious skill detection, hidden command analysis, and least privilege control, including whether API keys, credentials, sensitive data, hidden commands, malicious actions, or excessive permissions are present.
- Vulnerability detection and risk assessment: Maps assets to CPEs and correlates them with CVE databases to provide vulnerability insights and risk references, helping organizations identify high-risk software, operating system versions, or endpoint devices.
- Security configuration and compliance assessment: Assesses system settings against CIS benchmarks to verify security baseline compliance, and supports SEMI E187 Compliance Assessment across operating systems, network security, endpoint protection, and security monitoring.
Manage endpoint “claw” risks early
AI agents are quickly becoming part of enterprise environments. While they bring convenience and efficiency, they also introduce new risks to endpoint security. With ThreatSonar Plus, organizations can gain clearer visibility into endpoint conditions, identify and manage potential risks earlier, and build a cyber defense approach that keeps pace with fast-changing technologies and operating environments.
ThreatSonar Plus - Extensive Endpoint Assessment Platform can help you! Built on asset inventory, risk detection, and AI agent identification, ThreatSonar Plus enables organizations to gain visibility into critical assets and AI agent deployments, uncover security gaps across endpoints, software, and AI agents, and prioritize remediation based on risk severity.