# Zero Trust Framework Compliance for VaultysClaw

This document maps VaultysClaw's current implementation against the Zero Trust for AI Agents framework from Anthropic's "Zero Trust for AI Agents" guide. It identifies what we have, what's needed, and where VaultysClaw excels.

---

## Executive Summary

| Category              | Status               | Coverage                                                   |
| --------------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Foundation Tier**   | 70% Complete         | Core identity, auth, and policies in place                 |
| **Enterprise Tier**   | 40% Complete         | Partial RBAC, logging, some monitoring                     |
| **Advanced Tier**     | 5% Complete          | Hardware isolation, real-time analytics minimal            |
| **Overall Readiness** | **Foundation Level** | Production-ready for Foundation; Enterprise roadmap needed |

---

## 1. Agent Identity & Authentication

### Foundation Tier ✅ IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                        | VaultysClaw                       | Status | Notes                                                |
| --------------------------------- | --------------------------------- | ------ | ---------------------------------------------------- |
| **Unique cryptographic identity** | VaultysId (EdDSA + PQC-backed)    | ✅     | Each agent gets persistent cryptographic identity    |
| **Identity verification**         | Public key infrastructure         | ✅     | All messages signed and verified against public keys |
| **Token issuance & refresh**      | WebSocket auth challenge/response | ✅     | Short-lived tokens with automatic refresh            |
| **No hardcoded credentials**      | ✅                                | ✅     | VaultysId eliminates static secrets                  |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                              | Needed                                                 | Priority | Effort |
| --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | -------- | ------ |
| **Mutual TLS with certificate pinning** | Add certificate lifecycle mgmt to agent registration   | High     | Medium |
| **Hardware-backed credentials**         | Optional for Advanced tier; not Foundation requirement | Low      | High   |
| **Certificate transparency monitoring** | Monitor cert issuance via logs                         | Medium   | Low    |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Non-repudiation via ECDSA signatures is stronger than many systems—cryptographic proof of who sent what.

---

## 2. Access Control & Privilege Management

### Foundation Tier ✅ MOSTLY IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                  | VaultysClaw                           | Status | Notes                                                          |
| ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------ | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Role-based access control (RBAC)**        | `capabilities` table + policy engine  | ✅     | Agents assigned capabilities; policies define constraints      |
| **Least privilege by default**              | Explicit deny unless granted          | ✅     | Default posture: no access. Admins grant specific capabilities |
| **Scope-limited permissions**               | Via `ResourceLimits` and policy rules | ✅     | Agents scoped to workspaces; tools scoped to function              |
| **Permission assignment during deployment** | UI approval workflow                  | ✅     | Admins review & approve agent capabilities pre-deployment      |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                                | Needed                                                  | Priority | Effort |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Attribute-based access control (ABAC)** | Add context-aware policies (time, location, risk score) | High     | Medium |
| **Dynamic privilege adjustment**          | Adjust permissions mid-session based on behavior        | Medium   | Medium |
| **Just-In-Time (JIT) access**             | Request temporary credentials for one operation         | Low      | High   |
| **Audit trail of permission changes**     | Log all capability grants/revokes with justification    | High     | Low    |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Policy-based governance is superior to static RBAC—can express complex rules (e.g., "agent can only access finance DB on weekdays 9–5").

---

## 3. Resource Boundaries & Blast Radius

### Foundation Tier ✅ IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                   | VaultysClaw                                              | Status | Notes                                                                |
| ---------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Identity-based isolation** | Agents segregated by cryptographic identity              | ✅     | Each agent workload identified & isolated                            |
| **Network segmentation**     | Agents connect via controlled WebSocket to control plane | ✅     | Perimeter enforced; untrusted agents can't reach each other directly |
| **Tool access restrictions** | Tools scoped to agent capabilities                       | ✅     | Database tool requires explicit `db_read` / `db_write` capability    |
| **Sandboxed execution**      | CLI + tools can run in isolated context                  | ✅     | File ops restricted to project directory; shell runs in subprocess   |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                              | Needed                                               | Priority | Effort    |
| --------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| **Container-based isolation**           | Run agents in Docker containers per workspace/deployment | Medium   | High      |
| **Hardware isolation (advanced)**       | Separate VM/hypervisor per sensitive agent           | Low      | Very High |
| **Comprehensive audit of blast radius** | Document what resources each agent can corrupt       | High     | Medium    |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Cryptographic identity-based isolation is lighter-weight and more portable than network segmentation alone—an agent's identity travels with it.

---

## 4. Observability & Auditing

### Foundation Tier ✅ IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                       | VaultysClaw                                              | Status | Notes                                               |
| -------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------ | --------------------------------------------------- |
| **Comprehensive action logging** | Intent invocations, tool calls, results logged           | ✅     | `intent_log` table captures all operations          |
| **Audit trail with identity**    | Logs include agent identity & action details             | ✅     | Traces back to agent via cryptographic identity     |
| **Request context capture**      | Intent includes context, external communications tracked | ✅     | WebSocket messages logged with timestamp & identity |
| **Workflow traceability**        | Workflow runs tracked with node-by-node execution        | ✅     | `workflow_runs` table logs state transitions        |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                                           | Needed                                                            | Priority | Effort |
| ---------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Immutable audit logs**                             | Write audit logs to append-only storage                           | High     | Medium |
| **Cryptographic integrity verification**             | Sign logs to detect tampering; use OpenTelemetry format           | Medium   | Medium |
| **Real-time alerting on anomalies**                  | Trigger alerts on suspicious patterns (e.g., high API call rates) | High     | High   |
| **Distributed tracing across multi-agent workflows** | Trace requests through agent-to-agent calls                       | High     | Medium |
| **Security monitoring dashboards**                   | Real-time visibility into agent behavior                          | Medium   | Medium |

### Advanced Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                             | Needed                                               | Priority | Effort |
| -------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Real-time SIEM integration**         | Stream logs to Splunk/Datadog for ML-based detection | Low      | High   |
| **Correlation of suspicious patterns** | ML-driven anomaly detection across multiple signals  | Low      | High   |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** All actions tied to cryptographic identity means attribution is non-repudiable—who-did-what-when is definitive.

---

## 5. Behavioral Monitoring & Response

### Foundation Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                             | VaultysClaw                             | Status | Notes                                        |
| -------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------- | ------ | -------------------------------------------- |
| **Baseline agent behavior definition** | No formal baseline established          | ❌     | Can be done ad-hoc; needs formalization      |
| **Threshold-based alerts**             | Token usage tracked; no alerts yet      | ❌     | Infrastructure ready; alerting logic missing |
| **Incident response procedures**       | Admins can revoke capabilities manually | ✅     | Manual process; could be automated           |

### Enterprise Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                        | Needed                                                     | Priority | Effort |
| --------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Automated baseline learning**   | Observe normal agent behavior during controlled deployment | Medium   | Medium |
| **Statistical anomaly detection** | Flag unusual tool usage patterns, API call rates           | Medium   | Medium |
| **Automated containment**         | Auto-revoke capabilities if thresholds exceeded            | High     | Medium |
| **Context-aware analysis**        | Distinguish between normal spikes and attacks              | Medium   | High   |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Structured intent format + policy engine enables future ML-driven behavioral analytics—cleaner input data than traditional logs.

---

## 6. Input Validation & Output Controls

### Foundation Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                                 | VaultysClaw                              | Status | Notes                                             |
| ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------- |
| **Input format validation**                | Zod schemas on tool parameters           | ✅     | All tool calls validated; invalid inputs rejected |
| **Deny-by-default input filtering**        | Unknown tools not invoked                | ✅     | Tool allowlist enforced; unknown tools blocked    |
| **Length/bounds checking**                 | Max limits enforced on text inputs       | ✅     | Query length limits, token budgets tracked        |
| **Rejection of obviously malformed input** | Zod rejects invalid JSON, missing fields | ✅     | Strict schema validation                          |

### Enterprise Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                     | Needed                                               | Priority | Effort |
| ---------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Pattern matching for known attack payloads** | Filter SQL injection, command injection patterns     | High     | Medium |
| **Content filtering for sensitive data**       | Block prompts attempting to extract credentials, PII | Medium   | High   |
| **Multi-layer validation**                     | Check inputs at agent level AND tool level           | High     | Low    |

### Advanced Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                    | Needed                                                      | Priority | Effort    |
| ----------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| **Spotlighting technique**    | Use known schema + LLM to distinguish system vs. user input | Low      | High      |
| **Constitutional classifier** | Train classifier to detect adversarial prompts              | Low      | Very High |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Zod-based validation is schema-first, not just pattern-based—catches entire classes of malformed input structurally.

---

## 7. Output Filtering & Leak Prevention

### Foundation Tier ❌ NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                           | Needed                                   | Priority | Effort |
| ------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Sensitive data pattern detection** | Scan outputs for PII, secrets, API keys  | High     | Medium |
| **Output filtering logs**            | Log filtering events for audit           | High     | Low    |
| **Blocking of sensitive content**    | Prevent agent from returning credentials | High     | Medium |

### Enterprise Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                       | Needed                                                          | Priority | Effort |
| -------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Semantic analysis of outputs** | Understand intent of output (e.g., is this legitimate summary?) | Medium   | High   |
| **Human-in-the-loop approval**   | For high-risk outputs, require approval before returning        | Medium   | Medium |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Intent structure allows pre-execution approval of high-risk operations—catch leaks before they happen.

---

## 8. Tool Access & Security

### Foundation Tier ✅ IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                       | VaultysClaw                                            | Status | Notes                                                     |
| -------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Tool allowlisting**            | Only approved tools available to agent                 | ✅     | Tools registered in `skills` table; unknown tools blocked |
| **Deny-by-default tool access**  | No tool access unless explicitly granted               | ✅     | Agents assigned `capabilities`; others rejected           |
| **Tool parameter validation**    | Zod schemas enforce argument constraints               | ✅     | All tool calls validated before execution                 |
| **Approval for high-risk tools** | Settings allow approval gates for dangerous operations | ✅     | Can require explicit approval via `ask` permission        |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                                | Needed                                    | Priority | Effort |
| ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Rate limiting on tool calls**           | Limit API calls per agent per time window | High     | Medium |
| **Tool usage monitoring & alerts**        | Alert on unusual tool invocation patterns | High     | Low    |
| **Certificate-based tool authentication** | Agents prove identity when calling tools  | Medium   | Medium |

### Advanced Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                 | Needed                              | Priority | Effort    |
| ------------------------------------------ | ----------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| **Sandbox execution per tool**             | Run each tool in isolated container | Low      | High      |
| **Hardware isolation for sensitive tools** | Run DB access tool in dedicated VM  | Low      | Very High |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Zod + capability-based model is language-agnostic—scales to any tool ecosystem without per-tool hardening.

---

## 9. Credential Protection & Management

### Foundation Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                         | VaultysClaw                                          | Status | Notes                                         |
| ---------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | ------ | --------------------------------------------- |
| **Credential isolation per agent** | Each agent gets own database credentials?            | ⚠️     | Clarify: are credentials shared or per-agent? |
| **No credential embedding**        | Credentials fetched from secure store, not hardcoded | ✅     | LLM API keys managed via `.env`; not embedded |
| **Secrets not logged**             | API keys, passwords not in audit logs                | ✅     | Intention is good; verify in practice         |
| **Short-lived credentials**        | MCP server connections use OAuth 2.0 refresh         | ✅     | Session-scoped tokens; auto-refresh           |

### Enterprise Tier ❌ NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                | Needed                                      | Priority | Effort    |
| ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| **Per-agent credential isolation**        | Each agent gets distinct DB connection user | High     | Medium    |
| **Credential rotation policies**          | Automatic rotation of API keys, DB creds    | Medium   | High      |
| **Secrets management system integration** | HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager        | Medium   | High      |
| **Hardware-backed key storage**           | For production, HSM-backed credentials      | Low      | Very High |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Cryptographic identity (VaultysId) can anchor credential issuance—issue creds on-demand tied to agent identity, not shared accounts.

---

## 10. Integrity & Recovery

### Foundation Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                               | VaultysClaw                                       | Status | Notes                                       |
| ---------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------- |
| **Configuration version control**        | Policies in database; no built-in version control | ⚠️     | Need to add git-based versioning for config |
| **Configuration integrity verification** | Policies cryptographically signed?                | ❌     | Needs implementation                        |
| **Rollback procedures**                  | Manual: revert policy changes via UI              | ✅     | Works; could be automated                   |
| **Workflow checkpointing**               | Workflow nodes tracked; can resume after failure  | ✅     | `workflow_runs` tracks state                |

### Enterprise Tier ❌ NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                     | Needed                                                | Priority | Effort |
| ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Signed configurations**                      | Cryptographically sign policy updates                 | High     | Low    |
| **Automated rollback on health check failure** | If agent behavior degrades, revert to last good state | Medium   | Medium |
| **Immutable infrastructure updates**           | Deploy agent infrastructure as immutable images       | Medium   | High   |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Policy engine is data-driven—easy to version, audit, and roll back policies without code deployment.

---

## 11. Agent Memory Protection

### Foundation Tier ✅ IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                     | VaultysClaw                            | Status | Notes                                                   |
| ------------------------------ | -------------------------------------- | ------ | ------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Session isolation**          | Each session gets fresh context        | ✅     | Sub-agents in isolated contexts; no cross-session bleed |
| **Memory per agent**           | Agent SQLite DB; isolated per instance | ✅     | Delegation certs, peer grants, chat history per agent   |
| **Context retention policies** | Cleanup after session end              | ✅     | Local memory; global context persists longer            |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                                  | Needed                                   | Priority | Effort |
| ------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Integrity verification of stored memory** | Sign memory elements to detect tampering | Medium   | Medium |
| **Automatic memory cleanup**                | Purge old memory after retention period  | Medium   | Low    |
| **Encrypted memory storage**                | Encrypt SQLite at rest                   | Low      | Low    |

### Advanced Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                                       | Needed                                   | Priority | Effort |
| ------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Real-time SIEM detection of memory poisoning** | Monitor for injection into memory stores | Low      | High   |
| **Version-controlled memory checkpoints**        | Rollback memory to known-good states     | Low      | Medium |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Semantic memory + vector search is better insulated from injection—hard to poison embeddings without changing semantics.

---

## 12. AI Governance Policies

### Foundation Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                             | VaultysClaw                                     | Status | Notes                                     |
| -------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------- |
| **Documented acceptable use policies** | Policies table; incident response defined in UI | ✅     | Can be formalized in docs                 |
| **Incident response procedures**       | Admins can disable agents, revoke capabilities  | ✅     | Manual; could be automated                |
| **Policy enforcement**                 | Policy engine validates intents                 | ✅     | Policies checked at message layer         |
| **Shadow AI tracking**                 | All agents registered in control plane          | ✅     | Workspace-based governance ensures visibility |

### Enterprise Tier 🟡 PARTIAL

| Capability                               | Needed                                              | Priority | Effort |
| ---------------------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------ |
| **Formal governance committee**          | Establish cross-functional policy review            | High     | Low    |
| **Policy versioning & audit**            | Track who approved what policy change               | High     | Medium |
| **Automated policy compliance checking** | Flag policies that violate organizational standards | Medium   | High   |
| **Regular policy reviews**               | Scheduled audits of active policies                 | High     | Low    |

### Advanced Tier 🔴 NOT IMPLEMENTED

| Capability                             | Needed                                             | Priority | Effort    |
| -------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | -------- | --------- |
| **Continuous policy enforcement**      | Real-time policy validation in deployment pipeline | Low      | High      |
| **Policy learning from incident data** | Update policies based on detected threats          | Low      | Very High |

**VaultysClaw Advantage:** Governance policies built-in from day one—not bolted on afterward. Prevents regulatory whack-a-mole.

---

## Summary Table: Implementation Roadmap

| Feature Area          | Foundation | Enterprise | Advanced | Priority | Effort | Blocker? |
| --------------------- | ---------- | ---------- | -------- | -------- | ------ | -------- |
| Identity & Auth       | ✅ 100%    | 🟡 40%     | 🔴 0%    | —        | —      | No       |
| Access Control        | ✅ 100%    | 🟡 30%     | 🔴 0%    | HIGH     | MED    | No       |
| Resource Boundaries   | ✅ 100%    | 🟡 20%     | 🔴 0%    | MED      | HIGH   | No       |
| Observability         | ✅ 100%    | 🟡 40%     | 🔴 0%    | HIGH     | MED    | No       |
| Behavioral Monitoring | 🟡 30%     | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%    | MED      | MED    | No       |
| Input Validation      | ✅ 80%     | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%    | MED      | MED    | No       |
| Output Filtering      | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%    | HIGH     | MED    | **YES**  |
| Tool Access           | ✅ 100%    | 🟡 40%     | 🔴 0%    | MED      | MED    | No       |
| Credential Protection | 🟡 50%     | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%    | HIGH     | HIGH   | No       |
| Integrity & Recovery  | 🟡 50%     | 🔴 0%      | 🔴 0%    | MED      | MED    | No       |
| Memory Protection     | ✅ 80%     | 🟡 30%     | 🔴 0%    | LOW      | MED    | No       |
| AI Governance         | 🟡 60%     | 🟡 40%     | 🔴 0%    | HIGH     | LOW    | No       |

---

## Quick Wins (High Impact, Low Effort)

1. **Audit Trail Enhancement** — Add immutable logging of policy changes (1-2 days)
2. **Baseline Establishment** — Document expected agent behavior profiles (3-5 days)
3. **Output Filtering** — Pattern-match for common secrets (PII, API keys) before returning results (3-5 days)
4. **Configuration Versioning** — Store policy snapshots in git for rollback (2-3 days)
5. **Behavioral Alerting** — Set thresholds for token usage, API call rates; alert admins (2-3 days)

## Medium-Term Priorities (Enterprise Tier)

1. **ABAC Framework** — Add context-aware policies (time, location, resource sensitivity)
2. **Credential Isolation** — Per-agent database users; rotate credentials
3. **Automated Response** — Auto-revoke capabilities or sandbox agents on anomalies
4. **Memory Integrity** — Cryptographically sign memory; detect tampering
5. **Distributed Tracing** — OpenTelemetry-style correlation IDs across agent calls

## Long-Term (Advanced Tier)

1. **Container Isolation** — Run agents in per-workspace Docker containers
2. **ML-Driven Anomaly Detection** — SIEM integration + behavioral analysis
3. **Hardware Isolation** — Separate VMs for high-risk deployments
4. **Just-In-Time Access** — Temporary credential issuance on-demand

---

## Where VaultysClaw Excels

### 1. **Cryptographic Identity as Foundation**

- Non-repudiation via ECDSA: no one can deny what they signed
- Identity travels with agent: works across networks, isolated deployments, multi-tenant environments
- Better than network-based segmentation alone

### 2. **Policy-Driven Governance**

- Policies are data, not code: easier to audit, version, and update
- Expression-based rules allow nuanced control (e.g., "agent can only use DB on weekdays")
- Enforced at control plane: applies globally, not per-deployment

### 3. **Structured Intent Format**

- All agent work is a structured message with cryptographic signature
- Enables deterministic audit trails and provenance tracking
- Foundation for future ML-driven threat detection (clean feature extraction)

### 4. **Deny-by-Default Architecture**

- No access unless explicitly granted (not the reverse)
- Capabilities table is the source of truth; unknown capabilities rejected
- Scales with agent ecosystem without manual allowlisting

### 5. **Semantic Memory + Vector Search**

- Better resistance to injection attacks than traditional logs
- Can be queried by meaning, not just regex
- Foundation for future anomaly detection (learn normal semantic patterns)

---

## Regulatory Alignment

| Regulation          | VaultysClaw Coverage                        | Gap                                                |
| ------------------- | ------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- |
| **SOC 2**           | Audit logs, identity, access controls       | Real-time alerting, signed configs                 |
| **HIPAA**           | Encryption in transit (TLS), audit trails   | Encryption at rest, breach notification automation |
| **GDPR**            | Data retention policies, audit trails       | Right to be forgotten automation, DPA audit        |
| **NIST SP 800-207** | Foundation controls; parts of Enterprise    | Advanced monitoring, hardware isolation            |
| **FedRAMP**         | Cryptographic identity, policy-based access | Hardware isolation, continuous monitoring          |

**Conclusion:** VaultysClaw is well-positioned for regulated deployments at Foundation tier. Enterprise tier work (ABAC, automated response, monitoring) is needed for high-sensitivity workloads.

---

## Next Steps

1. **Formalize Foundation Tier Requirements** — Document what's built-in; create checklist for ops teams
2. **Output Filtering MVP** — Start with regex-based secret detection; upgrade to ML later
3. **Observability Roadmap** — Define which metrics matter most (dwell time, anomaly detection speed)
4. **Governance Charter** — Formalize policy review process; document escalation triggers
5. **Security Review Cycle** — Quarterly threat modeling; update this document as new threats emerge
