What happens when an AI agent has permission, but the action is still wrong?

Reddit r/AI_Agents News
ai-agents authorization agent-security permissions tool-use

Summary

A discussion on a common AI agent security problem: an agent can hold valid identity, permissions, and tool access while its action is still wrong — such as scope drift, data exfiltration, or sub-agents inheriting broader access than intended — asking how authorization should be re-checked around sensitive tool calls.

I’ve been thinking about a problem that seems easy to overlook with AI agents. An agent can have the right identity, valid permissions, and access to the right tool, and the action can still be wrong. For example: An agent is allowed to update customer records, but during a long workflow it suddenly tries to export the entire customer database. Or it is allowed to send emails, but the recipient or data changes from what was originally approved. Or a sub agent inherits access from a parent agent and gradually does more than the original task required. So I keep coming back to this question: How do you decide what an agent is authorized to do right now? Do you recheck authorization before sensitive tool calls? Do you track previous actions or trajectory? What happens when the agent moves outside its original scope? Curious how people building agents in production are handling this. Would especially love to hear about real failures or edge cases.
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