What is an attack path?
An attack path is a chain of access steps an attacker can take from an entry point to a valuable target, such as production systems or sensitive data.
cursor-ciEntry: AI coding agentEntry- An attack path is a chain of access steps from an entry point to something that matters.
- Every step can be legitimate on its own. That is why reviewing permissions one at a time does not find it.
- It is not a vulnerability. There is nothing to patch, because nothing is broken.
- You close it by changing one step, and the best step to change is the breakpoint.
Published Last reviewed
In practice
Each step in an attack path can be legitimate on its own: a valid login, an approved OAuth grant, a role that was assigned on purpose. The risk comes from how the steps connect. Security tools that look at one permission at a time see a list of findings. Attack path analysis connects them and shows which ones end at something that matters.
For AI agents, the entry point is often the agent itself or a credential it holds. See the full guide to AI agent attack paths.
An attack path is a chain of access steps an attacker can take from an entry point to a valuable target, such as production systems or sensitive data.
Path or finding. The difference.
The same environment, described by two kinds of tool. Only one of them tells you what to do first.
| A list of findings | An attack path | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Permissions that look wrong, one at a time. | How steps connect, end to end. |
| How it ranks | By severity of each finding. | By what sits at the end of the chain. |
| What it misses | That four harmless grants form one route. | Findings that lead nowhere, which is fine. |
| What you do with it | Work down a list that regrows. | Change one step and close several paths. |
How it works. Step by step.
The parts that make it up, in an environment with AI agents.
Where the path starts: an AI agent, a token, a service account or an OAuth app.
What that identity holds or can read: keys in files, tokens in CI, grants on its account.
Roles and scopes those credentials unlock, including roles that can be assumed.
Sensitive data or a destructive action in production at the end of the chain.
What it looks like in Elmoz
A real path shape, drawn the way the Elmoz security graph shows it.
Questions, answered.
Short answers about Attack path.
How is an attack path different from a vulnerability?
A vulnerability is a flaw in software. An attack path can be made entirely of valid access: a real token, an assigned role, an approved grant. Patching does not close it. Changing access does.
How do you break an attack path?
Remove or scope one step in the chain. The best choice is the breakpoint: the single change that closes the path with the least disruption to agents and people who depend on it.
Do AI agents create new attack paths?
Mostly they use access that already exists. What changes is speed and control: an agent can walk a path in seconds and can be steered by prompt injection, so a path that looked theoretical becomes usable.
Keep reading.
Pages that belong to the same picture.
See what your agents can reach. Before someone else does.
Book a demo and we walk through the access paths in an environment like yours.