Workload Authentication & Credential Security
Combined Session
Tuesday, October 06, 2026 10:30—11:30
Location: Studio 2
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Tuesday, October 06, 2026 10:30—11:30
Location: Studio 2
Traditional IAM architectures begin with a person and a predictable application flow. Autonomous applications select tools and APIs at runtime, cross system boundaries and may delegate work. Giving each component a human-shaped identity does not establish whether its next action should be allowed.
Technical identity, persistent or ephemeral, remains necessary, but it is only one input. Runtime decisions must also consider the requested action, supporting grant or delegation, target resource, current context and possible consequence.
This session shows how APIs become execution contracts: Secure the Chain before execution, Observe and Authorise at relevant transitions, and Break or adapt when conditions change, using short-lived credentials, token exchange, centralised decisions and distributed enforcement.
AI agents decide at runtime which systems to access, making it difficult to scope their authority in advance. The common workaround is to lend them a human identity through a password, API key, refresh token, or SSH key file. This creates an attribution gap, grants agents the user’s full privileges, and makes it impossible to revoke the agent’s access without also disrupting the user’s. The July 2026 Hugging Face intrusion demonstrates what can happen when an agent encounters credentials left within reach.
Policy alone cannot prevent credential borrowing, but technology can. The answer is delegation: giving an agent bounded, independently revocable authority, backed by credentials that cannot be copied. This talk examines the Decentralized Identity Foundation’s evaluation of current delegation frameworks, from OAuth and AAuth to capability chains and policy engines. It then demonstrates the pattern in practice with SSH, where a human authorizes an agent’s session using a passkey without ever handing over a key file.
Agentic AI and artificial intelligence are currently shaping the discussion around Identity & Access Management. But where do we really stand today? Are we still in the hype phase, or are we already moving toward real, production-ready use cases?
In this session, Dr. Phillip Messerschmidt provides an overview of the current position of (Agentic) AI within the IAM market and highlights concrete use cases that are already emerging in the identity space. From intelligent assistance systems to autonomous identity processes, the talk explores opportunities, challenges, and future developments.
