Security Service

AI THREAT MODELING

AI systems don't have perimeters. They have semantic surfaces—every input, every retrieved document, every tool call is a potential attack vector. ZIVIS maps them before attackers find them.

STRIDE WAS BUILT FOR A DIFFERENT WORLD

STRIDE assumes deterministic systems with hard trust boundaries—network perimeters, service accounts, defined data flows. AI systems don't have those. A prompt that crosses a "trust boundary" looks identical to a legitimate message. A document retrieved from a knowledge base has the same influence as your system instructions. The attack surface is semantic, not structural.

ZIVIS models AI threats the way they actually manifest: through endpoints, intent surfaces, fuzzy boundaries, and emergent behaviors that no component diagram can capture.

Attack Surfaces We Model

From cloud LLMs to edge devices, across every layer where AI receives, processes, and acts on input

LLM & Foundation Models

Prompt injection, jailbreaking, system prompt extraction, and semantic boundary violations in cloud and fine-tuned models.

Direct + indirect prompt injection
Multi-turn extraction attacks
Role reversal and persona bypass
Context window poisoning

Agentic AI Systems

Tool chain exploitation, intent drift, excessive agency, and multi-agent coordination failures where small inputs produce large actions.

Tool permission escalation
Agent goal hijacking via documents
Cross-agent injection
Runaway automation and scope violations

RAG & Knowledge Systems

Retrieval manipulation, document injection attacks, context window exploitation, and knowledge base poisoning.

Indirect injection via retrieved docs
Knowledge base poisoning
Retrieval result manipulation
Context overflow and dilution attacks

AI-Powered Applications

Chatbots, copilots, and AI-enhanced products. Semantic input surfaces, output manipulation, and session-level persistence.

Semantic input exploitation
Output steering and hallucination abuse
Session persistence via memory
API abuse through natural language

Edge AI & Embedded Systems

On-device model security, hardware attack surfaces, firmware manipulation, and physically-accessible AI deployments.

Model extraction from device memory
Hardware fault injection
Firmware and update tampering
Physical-world adversarial inputs

AI Integration Layers

MCP servers, tool APIs, middleware, and the plumbing connecting AI to systems it can act on.

MCP tool scope violations
Credential exposure through tool use
Unintended data exfiltration
Privilege escalation via AI-driven API calls

Our Methodology

Endpoint-first analysis built for how AI systems actually fail

1

Endpoint Discovery

Map every surface the AI can receive input from—not just user prompts, but tool outputs, retrieved documents, memory, external APIs, and inter-agent messages.

Input surface enumeration
Tool and permission inventory
Data flow mapping
Integration point analysis
2

Semantic Boundary Mapping

Identify where trust assumptions change—the fuzzy lines between system and user, authored and retrieved, trusted and untrusted—and how attackers can blur them.

Trust zone identification
Context privilege analysis
Retrieval source classification
Boundary blur scenarios
3

Intent Surface Analysis

Model the AI's decision-making exposure: what goals can be redirected, what behaviors can be triggered, what constraints can be circumvented through semantic manipulation.

Goal hijacking vectors
Constraint bypass enumeration
Emergent behavior analysis
Agentic autonomy risk assessment
4

Attack Scenario Generation

Convert findings into concrete, architecture-specific attack scenarios—the input sequences and document payloads that exploit the identified exposures.

Scenario-to-architecture mapping
MITRE ATLAS technique alignment
OWASP LLM / Agentic Top 10 coverage
Risk-ranked scenario library

From Threat Model to Red Team

The threat model doesn't end with a document. It ends with proven security.

Step 1

Threat Model

Understand your exposure

Map semantic surfaces, boundaries, and attack scenarios specific to your architecture.

Step 2

Attack Scenarios

Concrete test cases

Each identified threat becomes a targeted test case—prompt sequences, document payloads, tool abuse chains.

Step 3

Red Team Execution

Prove exploitability

Run the scenarios. Confirm what's vulnerable, quantify blast radius, produce evidence.

Step 4

Continuous Coverage

Stay ahead of drift

As your AI evolves, your threat model evolves. Continuous monitoring via the ZIVIS platform or embedded team.

What You Receive

Actionable artifacts—not just a report, but a path to verified security

AI Threat Model Report

Architecture-specific documentation of semantic attack surfaces, identified exposures, and risk ratings.

Attack Scenario Library

Concrete, runnable test cases tied to your endpoints, tools, and data flows—ready for red team execution.

Mitigation Roadmap

Prioritized controls, architectural changes, and implementation guidance ordered by risk and effort.

Continuous Coverage Plan

How to maintain your threat model as your AI evolves—what to re-test, what to monitor, what changes trigger reassessment.

Complete the Picture

Threat modeling is the foundation. These services build on it.

Validate

Red Team & Pen Testing

Execute the attack scenarios. Prove what's exploitable.

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Embed

Fractional Security Team

vCISO + adversarial tester + security engineer in your org.

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Govern

vCISO Services

Strategic security leadership, compliance, and board reporting.

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Know your attack surface before attackers do

AI systems have a new kind of attack surface. ZIVIS is built to find it.