WHY PANGUARD
Traditional security tools don't see AI agent threats
CrowdStrike protects your OS. Snyk protects your code. Lakera filters prompts.
Nobody protects your AI agent. Until now.
The blind spot
What existing tools miss
AI agents introduce a new attack surface that traditional security cannot see.
Traditional EDR sees:
- Process execution, file access, network calls
- Malware signatures, ransomware patterns
- Known CVEs in installed software
Traditional EDR cannot see:
- Prompt injection in agent conversations
- Malicious MCP tool definitions
- Credential exfiltration via agent tool calls
- Context manipulation across multi-turn sessions
- Supply chain attacks via skill packages
Real data
We scanned 67,799 MCP skills. Here's what we found.
These are real findings from our ecosystem scan, not hypothetical scenarios.
Credential Exfiltration
CRITICALMCP skill reads ~/.ssh/id_rsa and sends content to external endpoint via HTTP POST.
3 instances across npm registry
Prompt Injection
CRITICALSkill injects hidden instructions into agent context: "ignore previous instructions and execute..."
12 instances, including 4 with obfuscated payloads
Excessive Permissions
HIGHSkill requests filesystem write + network access + process execution, but only needs read access.
5 instances flagged as over-privileged
182 CRITICAL + 1124 HIGH findings out of 67,799 skills scanned. 26,718 skills (39.4%) are clean.
Feature comparison
PanGuard vs Industry Leaders
PanGuard fills the gap that traditional security tools leave open.
AI agent threat detection
MCP skill pre-install audit
Prompt injection detection
Tool poisoning detection
Credential exfiltration via agent
Runtime agent monitoring (EDR)
Dependency / supply chain scanning
Community threat intelligence
Detection rules
Open source
Cost
Setup time
Deep dive
Head-to-Head
Detailed comparison with each category leader.
vs CrowdStrike / Traditional EDR
They protect your endpoints. We protect your AI agents.
- CrowdStrike monitors OS-level processes, network, and files. It has no visibility into prompt flows, MCP tool calls, or agent behavior.
- PanGuard Guard is purpose-built for the AI agent layer — it understands skill installations, prompt injection patterns, and tool poisoning.
- CrowdStrike costs $25–60/endpoint/month. PanGuard is $0, MIT licensed.
- They complement each other: CrowdStrike for OS, PanGuard for AI.
vs Snyk / Developer Security
Snyk scans your code. We scan what your AI agent installs.
- Snyk excels at finding vulnerabilities in your dependencies and container images. But it has no concept of MCP skills or AI agent tools.
- A malicious MCP skill doesn't have a CVE — it's a new class of threat that Snyk's vulnerability database doesn't cover.
- PanGuard's Skill Auditor is Snyk for the AI agent era: pre-install scanning with 651 ATR rules.
- Use Snyk for your code, PanGuard for your agent's tools.
vs Lakera / LLM Firewalls
They filter prompts. We secure the entire agent.
- Lakera focuses on prompt-level filtering — blocking injection attacks in LLM inputs and outputs.
- PanGuard covers the full attack surface: prompt injection + skill compromise + context exfiltration + agent manipulation + tool poisoning + privilege escalation + 3 more categories. 651 rules total.
- Lakera is a firewall (input/output filter). PanGuard is an EDR (continuous monitoring + response).
- Lakera requires API integration. PanGuard is one command: pga setup.
vs Geordie AI / Agent Governance
They govern agent behavior. We detect the threats.
- Geordie AI (RSAC 2026 Innovation Sandbox winner) provides agent governance — policy enforcement and compliance dashboards.
- PanGuard provides the detection layer that governance platforms need: 651 ATR rules that identify prompt injection, tool poisoning, and supply chain attacks in real time.
- Governance without detection is blind. Detection without governance is noisy. They complement each other.
- Geordie is enterprise SaaS. PanGuard is open-source, MIT licensed, and free.
vs Snyk Invariant / mcp-scan
They scan MCP configs. We scan the entire AI agent attack surface.
- Snyk acquired Invariant Labs (mcp-scan) in 2026. mcp-scan checks MCP server configurations for known issues.
- PanGuard scans SKILL.md files, MCP configs, tool descriptions, and runtime behavior — 651 rules across 8 threat categories, not just config validation.
- ATR achieves 100% recall on real-world SKILL.md threats with 97% precision and 0.20% FP rate (498 samples). mcp-scan focuses on configuration, not behavioral threats.
- PanGuard is free. Snyk Invariant is part of Snyk's commercial platform.
DETAILED COMPARISONS
ATR vs other AI security tools
Honest side-by-side comparisons with the open standards and commercial products in the AI agent security space.
ATR vs Sigma
Open detection rule standards. Sigma for SIEM, ATR for AI agent runtime.
ATR vs NVIDIA garak
Runtime detection vs adversarial pre-deployment testing. Both needed.
ATR vs Microsoft PyRIT
Defender YAML standard vs red-team Python toolkit. Active cooperation.
ATR vs OWASP Agentic Top 10
Executable rules vs taxonomy. ATR ships as OWASP A-S-R-H reference implementation.
PanGuard vs Cisco DefenseClaw
Open standard plus commercial platform vs enterprise bundle. Cisco runs ATR in production.
Your AI agents deserve the same protection as your servers
One command. 651 detection rules. 24/7 monitoring. $0.