{
  "id": "excessive-agency",
  "code": "PTL-0166",
  "term": "Excessive Agency",
  "aliases": [],
  "category": "security",
  "definition": "Excessive agency is the vulnerability of giving an LLM-based system more functionality, permissions, or autonomy than its task requires, so that a manipulated or mistaken model can take damaging actions.",
  "description": "It is listed as LLM06 in the OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications (2025), which names three root causes, excessive functionality, excessive permissions, and excessive autonomy. Mitigations are least-privilege tools and credentials, narrowly scoped functions instead of open-ended ones, and human approval for high-impact actions.",
  "example": null,
  "broader": [],
  "narrower": [],
  "related": [
    "human-in-the-loop",
    "lethal-trifecta",
    "prompt-injection",
    "function-calling"
  ],
  "introduced": null,
  "added": "2026-10-10",
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "LLM06:2025 Excessive Agency",
      "authors": "OWASP Gen AI Security Project",
      "year": 2025,
      "url": "https://genai.owasp.org/llmrisk/llm062025-excessive-agency/"
    }
  ],
  "url": "https://protologue.com/t/excessive-agency/",
  "citation": "Protologue. (2026). Excessive Agency. In Protologue: A Taxonomy of Prompting and LLM Techniques (v1.4.0, PTL-0166). https://protologue.com/t/excessive-agency/"
}