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Cognitive Control Architecture (CCA): A Lifecycle Supervision Framework for Robustly Aligned AI Agents

Authors: Zhibo Liang, Tianze Hu, Zaiye Chen, Mingjie Tang

Published: 2025-12-07

arXiv ID: 2512.06716v2

Added to Library: 2026-01-26 03:01 UTC

Red Teaming

📄 Abstract

Autonomous Large Language Model (LLM) agents exhibit significant vulnerability to Indirect Prompt Injection (IPI) attacks. These attacks hijack agent behavior by polluting external information sources, exploiting fundamental trade-offs between security and functionality in existing defense mechanisms. This leads to malicious and unauthorized tool invocations, diverting agents from their original objectives. The success of complex IPIs reveals a deeper systemic fragility: while current defenses demonstrate some effectiveness, most defense architectures are inherently fragmented. Consequently, they fail to provide full integrity assurance across the entire task execution pipeline, forcing unacceptable multi-dimensional compromises among security, functionality, and efficiency. Our method is predicated on a core insight: no matter how subtle an IPI attack, its pursuit of a malicious objective will ultimately manifest as a detectable deviation in the action trajectory, distinct from the expected legitimate plan. Based on this, we propose the Cognitive Control Architecture (CCA), a holistic framework achieving full-lifecycle cognitive supervision. CCA constructs an efficient, dual-layered defense system through two synergistic pillars: (i) proactive and preemptive control-flow and data-flow integrity enforcement via a pre-generated "Intent Graph"; and (ii) an innovative "Tiered Adjudicator" that, upon deviation detection, initiates deep reasoning based on multi-dimensional scoring, specifically designed to counter complex conditional attacks. Experiments on the AgentDojo benchmark substantiate that CCA not only effectively withstands sophisticated attacks that challenge other advanced defense methods but also achieves uncompromised security with notable efficiency and robustness, thereby reconciling the aforementioned multi-dimensional trade-off.

🔍 Key Points

  • Introduction of the Cognitive Control Architecture (CCA), a holistic framework designed to address vulnerabilities in autonomous LLM agents against Indirect Prompt Injection (IPI) attacks.
  • Development of an Intent Graph to ensure proactive control-flow and data-flow integrity, enabling real-time detection of deviations in agent behavior.
  • Implementation of a dual-layered defense consisting of proactive integrity enforcement and a reactive Tiered Adjudicator for high-precision anomaly detection, allowing comprehensive analysis of suspected malicious actions.
  • Experimental results demonstrate CCA's effectiveness in reducing Attack Success Rates (ASR) while maintaining high utility and efficiency compared to existing defense mechanisms.
  • Establishment of a framework that strikes a balance between security, functionality, and efficiency, thereby providing a scalable solution for real-world autonomous systems.

💡 Why This Paper Matters

This paper presents a significant advancement in the security of AI agents, particularly in mitigating the risks associated with sophisticated IPI attacks. The Cognitive Control Architecture (CCA) offers a robust and practical defense mechanism that is not only effective but also maintains the operational efficiency of autonomous agents. The dual-layered approach and the innovative Intent Graph model are pivotal in ensuring that AI agents can function securely in dynamic environments, which is crucial for their deployment in critical applications.

🎯 Why It's Interesting for AI Security Researchers

This paper is of great interest to AI security researchers as it tackles a pressing issue in the landscape of AI vulnerabilities. The innovative methods proposed for enhancing the security of LLM agents against IPI attacks contribute valuable insights into developing resilient systems capable of withstanding sophisticated adversarial strategies. Furthermore, the findings underscore the need for comprehensive defense architectures that reconcile the often conflicting demands of security, functionality, and efficiency, thus informing future research and development in the field.

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