Shadow Agents

Shadow Agents: Weaponizing Autonomous AI Workflows and
Securing the Invisible Hand

As AI-native architectures continue to reshape modern development,
many organizations are unknowingly introducing invisible, autonomous
agents into their CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and DevSecOps
workflows. This talk explores how these “shadow agents” such as
LLM-driven decision layers, auto-scaling triggers, autonomous
remediation bots, and AI-integrated deployment tools can be
weaponized by threat actors if not properly governed.

We'll walk through:

• Real-world and theoretical attack paths targeting autonomous AI
• workflows.
• How AI-driven automations can be manipulated for lateral
• movement, privilege escalation, and data exfiltration.
• Gaps in current threat modeling practices when applied to
• self-operating agents.
• Strategic defenses for securing the “invisible hand” of AI in modern

pipelines.

Key Takeaways:

• Awareness of how AI-native tools introduce new attack surfaces.
• The importance of observability, explainability, and boundaries in
• AI automation.
• Practical guidance for securing AI-augmented CI/CD pipelines
• and workflows.

A video demo will be included in the session to illustrate one of the core risks discussed: the weaponization of an AI-augmented automation tool within a CI/CD pipeline. The demo will walk through how a seemingly helpful autonomous agent (like an LLM-driven remediation script or deployment bot) can be manipulated to escalate privileges or leak sensitive data.

Given the complexity of live environments, the demo will be pre-recorded to ensure reliability, but I’ll guide the audience step-by-step through the logic, actions, and implications.