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24/07/2026 4:09 pm
TL;DR: OpenAI AgentKit lowers the barrier to building AI agents inside a widely adopted platform, accelerating agent sprawl, expanding no-code workflow creation, and increasing the risk of unsanctioned data access and destructive actions, according to Noma Security. The governance problem is no longer agent capability alone, but visibility, approval gating, and policy control across workflows built outside AppSec review.
NHIMG editorial — based on content published by Noma Security: OpenAI AgentKit risk: the hidden AppSec surface
By the numbers:
- When AWS credentials are exposed publicly, attackers attempt access within an average of 17 minutes , and as quickly as 9 minutes in some cases.
Questions worth separating out
Q: How should security teams govern business-built AI agents in low-code platforms?
A: Start with discovery, ownership, and access boundaries.
Q: What breaks when AI agent workflows can be edited outside AppSec review?
A: What breaks is the assumption that production behaviour only changes through controlled software release processes.
Q: Why do AI agents increase the risk of oversharing sensitive data?
A: AI agents often aggregate context from multiple sources, then present or transmit that information in ways a user would not normally see.
Practitioner guidance
- Inventory every agent workflow before production release Discover workflows built with Agents SDK, ChatKit SDK, or other agent builders, then record owner, purpose, connected tools, and data sources in a single inventory.
- Require approval gates for destructive agent actions Block any workflow that can delete data, modify permissions, process payments, or trigger system commands unless a human approval step is enforced before execution.
- Classify MCP connectors as privilege-bearing integrations Treat each MCP server connection as a governed access path and review whether the agent’s effective permissions exceed the end user’s entitlements.
What's in the full article
Noma Security's full blog post covers the operational detail this post intentionally leaves for the source:
- Workflow examples showing how no-code agent builders handle prompts, tools, variables, and approval gates in practice.
- Specific misconfiguration patterns involving prompt injection, unsanitised variables, and destructive actions without human approval.
- Examples of how MCP connections expand data access and where agent workflows can overshare sensitive information.
- Noma Security's own detection and policy enforcement approach for embedded agents across the development lifecycle.
👉 Read Noma Security's analysis of OpenAI AgentKit risk and agent sprawl →
OpenAI AgentKit and agent sprawl: what security teams need now?
Explore further
24/07/2026 4:14 pm
Agent sprawl is now an identity governance problem, not just an AI adoption problem. When agent building moves into a platform already embedded across the enterprise, the number of actors with access to create workflows expands far beyond security’s line of sight. That changes the governance model from centrally designed automation to distributed identity creation with downstream permissions. The practitioner conclusion is straightforward: agent inventories, ownership, and approval boundaries must be treated as first-class identity controls.
A few things that frame the scale:
- 92% agree governing AI agents is critical to enterprise security, yet only 44% have implemented any policies to do so, according to AI Agents: The New Attack Surface report.
- Our research also found that only 52% of companies can track and audit the data their AI agents access, leaving 48% with a complete blind spot for compliance and breach investigation.
A question worth separating out:
Q: How can identity teams reduce shadow AI risk without blocking innovation?
A: Use narrow, policy-backed access paths that allow approved AI use while making unsanctioned use visible. Shadow AI grows when controls are too blunt and users work around them. The better approach is precise classification, monitored exceptions, and clear remediation when data use drifts out of policy.
👉 Read our full editorial: OpenAI AgentKit expands AI agent sprawl across enterprise workflows
