Skip to content
AI Radar by Wagner Solution
CS
Menu
worth noting Security

AWS and Keyfactor described AI agent authentication using X.509 PKI

only one source so far

AWS and Keyfactor presented a reference architecture for agent authentication and permission delegation. It combines signed requests, user delegation, tokens restricted to the target service and certificate revocation checks.

AWS and Keyfactor jointly described a reference architecture that connects the Keyfactor EJBCA platform with AWS services to authenticate AI agents. The example uses Amazon Bedrock through AWS Strands Agents SDK and protects access to an Amazon RDS for MySQL database through MCP tools.

The design distinguishes between user sign-in, communication between agents and agent access to the MCP tool server. Signed requests are intended to prove possession of the agent's private key; a nonce and timestamp are used to check request freshness. User-signed delegations are intended to pass on permissions without sharing credentials. Tokens based on RFC 8693 are restricted to the target service, and OCSP is used to check certificate revocation status.

According to the authors, the same pattern can also be used for other MCP-compatible tool servers. The article links to the complete source code for the examples in a repository on GitHub. See the source article for details.

What changed

Why it matters

For teams deploying agents to access corporate data, the design offers a concrete way to link the identity of the calling agent to the user's permissions. According to the authors, restricting tokens to the target service is intended to reduce the impact of a potential token leak.

Two audiences, two different impacts

What this means

01

For individuals

Developers can use the published architecture and sample code as a starting point when designing communication between agents and MCP tools.

What to do Review the sample code for verifying an agent request and how it ties into user delegation.
More practical updates →
02

For a business

Deploying this design also involves operating a PKI, managing certificate lifecycles and checking certificate revocation status. These activities become part of managing agent access to the corporate database.

Risks and compliance
What to decide Before any deployment, assign responsibility for issuing and revoking agent certificates.
More business impacts →
Amazon Bedrock AWS Strands Agents SDK Keyfactor EJBCA MCP PKI X.509

Check the original

Event sources

only one source so far · 1 publisher, 0 independent. We count feeds from the same owner only once.

1
AWS Machine Learning Blog primary source · first detected Securing AI agent identity with X.509 PKI on AWS