P6: Securing Multi-Agent Communication & Trust Mechanisms

Sign and encrypt every inter-agent message, including those propagated within a multi-agent system, so neither can be forged or read in transit.

Maintain a live trust score for each agent peer and reject transactions from agents whose score falls below the required threshold.

Require distributed consensus among independent agent peers before any single agent can execute a high-risk system operation.

Gate workflow-critical decisions behind approval from multiple agent peers rather than accepting the output of a single agent.

Segment tasks across agents with strict session and cross-client isolation so a compromised agent cannot escalate privileges into adjacent workflows.

Validate every inter-agent message against workflow state before acting on it, so malicious reasoning cannot propagate through the multi-agent system.

Require a quorum of independent agents to verify and sign off on any high-risk system modification before it is committed.

Apply per-agent execution quotas and fleet-wide rate limits to prevent flooding or coordinated denial-of-service attacks.

Restrict which agents may communicate with which others, based strictly on their declared functional roles.

Run real-time behavioural detection across inter-agent communications and immediately quarantine any agent flagged as rogue.

When a rogue agent is detected, isolate it together with its communication history and memory to prevent further contamination.

Revoke all elevated privileges from an agent the moment it exhibits suspicious or out-of-policy behaviour.

Trigger automated containment responses the instant an agent is classified as rogue, without waiting for human intervention.

Monitor agent admission events for identities that match previously ejected rogue agents attempting to rejoin the fleet.

Continuously audit inter-agent interactions for unexpected role changes or task reassignments that fall outside authorised workflows.

Detect anomalous inter-agent communication patterns, including unusual message volumes or calls to agents outside the expected topology.

Track each agent's trust score over time and alert when it drops or when reliability deviations propagate across the multi-agent system.

Cross-audit decision approval records to surface discrepancies where expected quorum was not reached or bypassed.

Monitor per-agent execution rates against their allocated quota and flag any pattern consistent with abuse or coordinated overload.

Compare each agent's decisions on equivalent inputs over time and flag inconsistencies that suggest goal drift or compromise.