Posted by Suresh Sathyamurthy
April 8, 2025
Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing business operations, streamlining interactions, and driving smarter decision-making. However, this powerful innovation also opens the door to new security challenges. The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) created the “OWASP Top 10 for LLM Applications 2025” to clearly outline security risks specifically related to LLM applications, helping organizations understand and effectively tackle these emerging threats.
In my last blog on OWASP Top 10 NHI risks, I used the fictional company Hooli from the HBO show “Silicon Valley”. Given this one is about securing LLMs, I’ll draw from the world of Artificial Intelligence and machines. In this blog, we’ll explore several key concerns highlighted by OWASP, using Cyberdyne Systems (from the Terminator) to illustrate how Akeyless effectively mitigates these critical security risks. While OWASP details ten vulnerabilities, this post addresses five areas specifically aligned with Akeyless’ strengths.
How Akeyless Addresses Selected OWASP LLM Risks
Preventing Prompt Injection (LLM01)
Prompt injection occurs when attackers manipulate AI prompts to trick an LLM into revealing confidential information or performing unauthorized actions.
- Role-Based and Attribute-Based Access Control (RBAC & ABAC): Akeyless implements fine-grained RBAC and ABAC policies to manage API tokens and permissions, ensuring only authorized personnel can modify AI prompts. This restricts unauthorized users from injecting malicious prompts.
- Comprehensive Audit & Monitoring: With detailed audit trails, Akeyless rapidly identifies unauthorized attempts or suspicious activities related to prompt alterations, allowing businesses to detect and block unauthorized modifications.
Cyberdyne Example: Attackers attempted to insert malicious commands into Cyberdyne’s customer support chatbot to extract client financial details. Akeyless’ strict privilege controls and audit capabilities quickly identified and blocked these unauthorized attempts, protecting sensitive customer data.
Avoiding Sensitive Information Disclosure (LLM02)
Sensitive data—Systems including personal customer information and proprietary business intelligence—can unintentionally appear in AI-generated content, leading to serious compliance issues or reputational harm.
- Secure Secrets Management with End-to-End Encryption: Akeyless securely stores encryption keys and critical credentials, ensuring that no sensitive data is exposed within AI prompts or responses.
- Zero-Knowledge Security Model: Akeyless’ Zero-Knowledge architecture with DFC™ encryption prevents unauthorized data access—even from privileged insiders—by distributing cryptographic fragments across multiple cloud providers.
- Dynamic & Just-in-Time Secrets (JIT): Akeyless issues ephemeral, short-lived credentials, ensuring AI models only access sensitive data when strictly necessary.
- Robust Access Controls: By enforcing precise access permissions, Akeyless ensures only authorized users can access sensitive information, substantially reducing the risk of accidental leaks through AI outputs.
Cyberdyne Example: Cyberdyne’s AI system was at risk of inadvertently sharing sensitive customer financial details due to insecure credential handling generated from vibe coding. By employing Akeyless’ secure secret management, credentials and data remained encrypted and isolated, preventing any accidental disclosures.
Securing the Supply Chain (LLM03)
Supply chain vulnerabilities arise when compromised third-party AI models or datasets create entry points for attackers.
- Secure Credential Management: Akeyless securely manages all credentials needed for third-party integrations, preventing compromised third-party services from gaining unauthorized access to sensitive internal resources.
- Automated Secrets Rotation & Zero Standing Privileges: Akeyless eliminates hardcoded secrets by dynamically rotating API keys and authentication credentials, preventing third-party services from retaining persistent access.
- SPIFFE & SPIRE Integrations: Akeyless seamlessly integrates with SPIFFE and SPIRE to issue secure workload identities, ensuring AI services authenticate safely without traditional secrets.
- Zero-Knowledge API Authentication: AI workloads authenticate via cloud-based identities without exposing API keys.
- Continuous Monitoring and Auditing: Akeyless’ real-time monitoring capabilities promptly detect and alert organizations about suspicious activities or unauthorized access.
Cyberdyne Example: Following a third-party AI provider breach, compromised credentials posed a threat to Cyberdyne. However, Akeyless’ Just-in-Time access model ensured all API keys were temporary and auto-rotated, rendering any compromised credentials useless.
Preventing Data and Model Poisoning (LLM04)
Data and model poisoning occur when attackers insert harmful or biased data to compromise the accuracy and reliability of AI outputs.
- Immutable Secrets & Version Control: Akeyless enforces strict access policies for data sources, ensuring only authorized AI pipelines can modify training datasets.
- Secure AI Model Key Management: AI model encryption keys are managed via FIPS 140-2 validated encryption, ensuring only authorized applications can access AI models.
- Tamper-Proof Audit Logs: All model modifications are recorded in immutable logs, preventing stealthy alterations to AI training data.
Cyberdyne Scenario: Competitors attempted to inject corrupted data into Cyberdyne’s market analytics AI tool. Thanks to Akeyless’ strict key management and access controls, unauthorized data changes were blocked, preserving the accuracy and trustworthiness of Cyberdyne’s AI insights.
Wrapping Up
Using practical scenarios from Cyberdyne Systems, we’ve illustrated how Akeyless effectively mitigates selected OWASP LLM risks, Systems including prompt injection, sensitive information disclosure, supply-chain vulnerabilities, data poisoning, and resource overuse. By employing Akeyless, businesses can confidently and securely embrace powerful LLM technologies while effectively managing associated risks.
Why Akeyless?
Akeyless is the leading SaaS-based, Zero-Knowledge security platform, providing:
- Patented Zero-Knowledge Encryption: Ensures that even Akeyless cannot access your AI secrets or keys.
- Multi-Cloud & On-Prem Compatibility: Works seamlessly with AWS, Azure, GCP, and Kubernetes.
- Integration with DevSecOps & AI Pipelines: Connects with Jenkins, Terraform, Kubernetes, and all the tools that DevOps use on a regular basis.
- FIPS 140-2, SOC 2, ISO 27001 Compliance: Fully adheres to industry security standards.
- End-to-End API Security: Protects AI prompts, data, and workloads without storing persistent secrets.
By adopting Akeyless, Cyberdyne Systems and other AI-driven companies can securely scale their LLM applications while mitigating the OWASP Top 10 AI security risks. Judgment Day would have never happened had Cyberdyne used Akeyless to secure their LLMs while building Skynet.
Ready to secure your AI applications? Explore the Akeyless platform today.
