Introduction.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Part I Foundations and Core Technologies
Chapter 1 Foundations of Agentic AI Systems. . . . . . . . . 1
Reflecting and Defining the Shift.. . . . . . . . . . 2
The Anatomy of a Modern AI Agentic Infrastructure.. . . . . . 9
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 2 Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), Agentic RAG, and Model Context Protocol (MCP).. . . . . . . . . . 19
A Recap of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic RAG. . . 20
Vector Databases and Embedding Models. . . . . . . . 21
A Deep Dive into the Model Context Protocol (MCP).. . . . . . 42
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 50
End-of-Chapter Projects.. . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 3 Protocols for the Internet of Agents.. . . . . . . . . 55
The Agent2Agent (A2A) Protocol . . . . . . . . . . 55
The Agent Communication Protocol (ACP). . . . . . . . 64
Agent Name Service (ANS): A Secure Universal Directory. . . . . 66
AGNTCY: Building the Foundational Stack for an “Internet of Agents”.. . . 69
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 74
Chapter 4 Orchestration with LangChain, LangGraph, and LlamaIndex. . . 75
Introducing LangChain. . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Using LangGraph Agent Workflows.. . . . . . . . . 78
Introducing LlamaIndex.. . . . . . . . . . . 87
Choosing Your Framework.. . . . . . . . . . . 89
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 94
Chapter 5 Exploring CrewAI, n8n, Apache Airflow, OpenAI Agent Builder, and Other Agentic Frameworks.. . . . . . . . . . 95
CrewAI: The Power of Role-Based Collaboration. . . . . . . 96
n8n: Visual Workflow and Low-Code Automation. . . . . . 101
Apache Airflow.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Langflow: Visual Orchestration and Deployment for GenAI.. . . . 121
The OpenAI Agent Platform.. . . . . . . . . . 122
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 126
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 128
Part II Applications and Security
Chapter 6 The Architect’s Cockpit: AI-Powered IDEs and Coding Agents.. . . 131
Defining the Modern AI Coding Agent. . . . . . . . 131
A Comparative Analysis of Leading AI Coding Agents.. . . . . 139
Establishing Enterprise-Grade Evaluation Criteria. . . . . . 154
Project CodeGuard: Don’t Let Your AI Agents Introduce Security Vulnerabilities.. 156
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 159
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 161
Project 6-1: Using Project CodeGuard to Create More Secure Code. . . 162
Chapter 7 Building an Autonomous SOC Analyst. . . . . . . . 165
The Crisis in Modern Security Operations. . . . . . . . 166
Anatomy of an Autonomous SOC Analyst.. . . . . . . . 167
Building the Foundation: Technical Implementation.. . . . . . 171
Advanced Implementation Patterns. . . . . . . . . 197
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 211
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 212
Project 7-1: Building Your Own Autonomous SOC Analyst. . . . . 213
Chapter 8 Agentic Penetration Testing, Red Teaming, and Bug Bounties. . . 215
Real-Life Attacks.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
Case Study: Using LangGraph and n8n for Cyberattacks and Espionage.. . 218
Building Penetration Testing Agents with LangChain and LangGraph. . 221
Agent Skills for Offensive Security.. . . . . . . . . 240
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 252
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 254
Chapter 9 AI Agents for Business Leaders and Project Managers.. . . . 255
Understanding AI Agents from a Cybersecurity Leadership Perspective.. . 256
Strategic Applications of AI Agents for Cybersecurity Leaders.. . . . 256
AI Agents for Cybersecurity Project Management.. . . . . . 260
Case Studies.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 266
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 267
Chapter 10 Securing Agentic AI Systems. . . . . . . . . . 269
The Unique Security Challenges of AI Systems. . . . . . . 269
The Coalition for Secure AI (CoSAI).. . . . . . . . . 273
The CoSAI Risk Map: Understanding AI Security Risks.. . . . . 273
Security Controls for AI Systems.. . . . . . . . . . 281
AI Supply Chain Security. . . . . . . . . . . 289
AI Incident Response Framework.. . . . . . . . . 293
Agentic AI Architecture Security Patterns. . . . . . . . 298
Provider Versus Consumer Responsibilities. . . . . . . . 301
Regulatory and Compliance Considerations. . . . . . . 303
Case Studies and Lessons Learned.. . . . . . . . . 304
MITRE ATLAS.. . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications. . . . . . . . 308
The MAESTRO Threat Modeling Framework.. . . . . . . 312
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326
Chapter Review Questions.. . . . . . . . . . . 327
Answers to Review Questions. . . . . . . . . . 329
End-of-Chapter Exercises.. . . . . . . . . . . 332
9780135589854, TOC, 4/22/26
