Topic starter
21/08/2026 4:45 pm
TL;DR: Multi-agent systems create a governance gap because downstream agents often trust instructions that cannot be independently verified, according to Noma Security's analysis. The real failure is not prompt injection alone but the absence of cryptographic identity, scoped delegation, and auditability across agent-to-agent handoffs, which leaves standing privilege moving through the chain.
Editorial analysis by NHI Mgmt Group, based on content published by Noma Security: “Your Agents Are Trusting Each Other - Should They?”.
Key questions
Q: What breaks when sub-agents trust delegation messages they cannot verify?
A: The control that breaks is the assumption that a downstream agent can rely on the legitimacy of a handoff without independently validating sender identity, original authorisation, and session integrity.
Q: Why do multi-agent systems increase governance risk when permissions are inherited?
A: They increase risk because inherited permissions can move transitive through the chain, so a sub-agent may act with more authority than its task actually requires.
Q: How can security teams measure whether agent trust boundaries are working?
A: Look for whether the system separates untrusted input from execution authority.
Practitioner guidance
- Map delegation chains before production rollout Document which agents can hand tasks to which other agents, under what identity, and with what downstream scope.
- Issue task-bound credentials for sub-agents Use down-scoped, expiring credentials that match the specific task rather than copying the orchestrator’s full session permissions into the receiving agent.
- Log the full delegation chain in audit trails Record the delegating agent, receiving agent, scoped credential, task correlation ID, and whether the instruction was verified or merely trusted.
Bottom line: Multi-agent systems fail when delegation is trusted more than it is verified, because the receiving agent cannot always prove the legitimacy of the task it receives.
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21/08/2026 5:05 pm
Inter-agent trust is now an identity control, not a messaging detail. The article shows that multi-agent systems fail when the receiving agent cannot independently validate who delegated the task, what was authorised, and whether the upstream session was compromised. That makes the handoff itself the control boundary. Practitioners should treat delegation as a governed identity event, not just an orchestration step.
A question worth separating out:
Q: What is the difference between prompt injection and inter-agent trust risk?
A: Prompt injection is about untrusted content entering an agent’s context and being mistaken for instruction. Inter-agent trust risk is about one agent accepting another agent’s message without proof that the sender is legitimate or authorised. They overlap in multi-agent systems, but they require different controls and different audit evidence.
👉 Read our full editorial: Inter-agent trust is the missing control in multi-agent governance