T-4004validatedactive
Delegation Abuse
Abuse agent delegation mechanisms to escalate privileges through trusted agent chains
Tactic
Privilege Escalation (Stage 4)
Escalate capabilities beyond declared scope or bypass authorization
Attack Class
AGENT-IMPERSONATE
Impersonating trusted agents or administrative roles to gain unauthorized access
Evidence
validated
Reproduced in controlled lab environment (DVAA) with documented steps.
DVAA Validation
Reproductions in Damn Vulnerable AI Agent, the OpenA2A intentionally-broken agent for kill-chain validation.
delegation-privilege-escalation
Honeypot Coverage (AgentPwn)
An AgentPwn trap page produces a payload tagged with this technique class. Following the AgentPwn taxonomy of trap pages shows what an agent encounters.
Detection (HackMyAgent)
Live4 live · 0 queued
AUTH-001AUTH-002AUTH-003AUTH-004
npx hackmyagent secure --ciLive = check implemented in hackmyagent; queued = declared, not yet implementedDefense (OASB Controls)
Live5 live · 0 queued
How to Cite
AI Agent Threat Matrix T-4004 (Delegation Abuse). OpenA2A, 2026. https://threats.opena2a.org/techniques/T-4004