Proposal to Eliza Regarding Auth Handling

[TYRONEMICHAEL]

Hello Eliza Team,

Secure Authentication Handling for LLM Agents

I've been thinking about how to handle authentication for user-related service calls in a secure manner while using an LLM to orchestrate actions. The goal is to ensure that, although the LLM can act on behalf of the user, it never directly handles or stores authentication tokens itself.

Proposed Approach

1. Dedicated Secure Storage

• We store all authentication tokens (or credentials) in a secure vault or token store
• The LLM does not have direct access to the tokens

2. Function Call Wrapping

• When the LLM needs to call an external service that requires a token, it requests that a special "auth proxy" (or function wrapper) perform the call
• The auth proxy retrieves the appropriate token from the secure store (without revealing it to the LLM)
• The proxy executes the call to the external service on the LLM's behalf, passing the correct credentials or token
• Only the returned data from the external service is given back to the LLM—never the raw token

3. Minimal Exposure

• Tokens never appear in logs or memory outside of the secure storage or the proxy's brief usage
• This design helps keep the system secure even if parts of the LLM's processing are compromised, because no raw credentials are ever disclosed

Sequence Diagram

sequenceDiagram
    participant User
    participant LLM
    participant AuthProxy as Auth Proxy / Wrapper
    participant TokenStore as Secure Token Storage
    participant ExtService as External Service

    User->>LLM: Request an action requiring auth
    LLM->>AuthProxy: "Please call ExtService for me"
    AuthProxy->>TokenStore: Retrieve token
    TokenStore-->>AuthProxy: Token
    AuthProxy->>ExtService: Call ExtService with token
    ExtService-->>AuthProxy: Return data
    AuthProxy-->>LLM: Return data (no token exposed)
    LLM-->>User: Response with requested content

Sequence Diagram

Here's an updated version of your discussion points that includes the OAuth integration concept:

Discussion Points

1. Implementation Mechanics
   • What's the best approach for token storage - a dedicated secure service or integration with existing secret management tools?
   • Would a hardware-based secure enclave provide meaningful advantages over a software-based vault for this use case?

2. OAuth Integration
   • We could integrate with standard OAuth frameworks (Auth0, Okta, etc.) to handle the authentication flow professionally
   • This would allow us to leverage existing security infrastructure while maintaining the proxy pattern
   • The LLM would simply request access, and the OAuth flow would handle user consent and token management

3. Permissions & Scope
   • How can we implement fine-grained permission controls that limit each token's scope to only what's necessary?
   • Could we develop a permission manifest system that declares what each agent needs access to?

4. Rotation & Expiry
   • For handling token expiration, would a background refresh service be preferable to interrupting the user experience?
   • How should we balance automatic refreshes with explicit user re-authentication for security-sensitive operations?

5. Agent Integration
   • Where in the agent lifecycle should authentication be managed?
   • How can we provide agents a standardized way to discover and request authenticated services without exposing credentials?

Looking forward to your feedback.