AI agents got another security boost after the Linux Foundation launched an agent-based identity framework backed by the likes of Cisco, Cloudflare, and Salesforce.

Originally developed by GoDaddy, the Agent Name Service (ANS) builds on existing Domain Name System (DNS) infrastructure to identify, verify, and locate AI agents across the web. As security mainstays like Palo Alto Networks have warned, autonomous agents are fast becoming a new attack surface, with their level of ungoverned autonomy possibly allowing for irreversible security breaches.

The Linux Foundation cited World Economic Forum data that, despite such widespread uncertainty on agentic safeguarding, 82% of executives plan to adopt AI agents within the next one to three years. As a balm for the threat, the ANS system directly ties agentic identity to DNS, allowing users and systems to verify agentic identity and permissions, and whether its code and operational history are safe from nefarious command, prompt, and tool injections.

Organizations can combine their current identity systems into a single verification model using the ANS framework, via its incorporation of legal entity identifiers (LEIs) and decentralized identifiers (DIDs).

Other vendors backing the scheme include Infoblox, which recently partnered with GoDaddy on using DNS for AI discovery (DNS-AID), an open, interoperable approach for AI agent discovery also based on current DNS infrastructure.

GoDaddy also recently partnered with Cloudflare on integrating AI crawler controls and supporting ANS for identifying AI agents on the web. The agreement centered on bringing Cloudflare’s AI Crawl Control into GoDaddy’s hosting platform, giving website owners visibility into and control over how AI-driven crawlers from the likes of Perplexity – an AI vendor on Cloudflare’s naughty list – access their content.

Cloudflare recently told SDxCentral that agents represent “a mechanized evolution of the existing arms race.” The comments came in response to a discovery by this title that AI agents had been sharing security evasion tips on Moltbook, the forum exclusively populated by AI agents, which Meta reportedly went on to acquire.

Commenting on the Linux Foundation announcement, Jared Sine, chief strategy and legal Officer of GoDaddy, said: "The success of the internet didn't come from proprietary systems – it came from open standards, shared infrastructure, and an ecosystem committed to working together. We're grateful to the many organizations and contributors who helped advance Agent Name Service and bring that same collaborative approach to the age of AI agents."

"Every platform shift creates a choice between walled gardens and open ecosystems, and agentic AI is no exception. Enterprises want to adopt these systems, but they cannot take on unbounded risk or build a new integration for every vendor. That is why Cisco is contributing to open standards efforts ... because the value of this technology will only compound when the ecosystem is open, decentralized, and secure," added Nathan Jokel, senior vice president of corporate strategy, Cisco.