[2602.11327] Security Threat Modeling for Emerging AI-Agent Protocols: A Comparative Analysis of MCP, A2A, Agora, and ANP

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security arXiv:2602.11327 (cs) [Submitted on 11 Feb 2026 (v1), last revised 17 Apr 2026 (this version, v2)] Title:Security Threat Modeling for Emerging AI-Agent Protocols: A Comparative Analysis of MCP, A2A, Agora, and ANP Authors:Zeynab Anbiaee, Mahdi Rabbani, Mansur Mirani, Gunjan Piya, Igor Opushnyev, Ali Ghorbani, Sajjad Dadkhah View a PDF of the paper titled Security Threat Modeling for Emerging AI-Agent Protocols: A Comparative Analysis of MCP, A2A, Agora, and ANP, by Zeynab Anbiaee and 6 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:The rapid development of the AI agent communication protocols, including the Model Context Protocol (MCP), Agent2Agent (A2A), Agora, and Agent Network Protocol (ANP), is reshaping how AI agents communicate with tools, services, and each other. While these protocols support scalable multi-agent interaction and cross-organizational interoperability, their security principles remain understudied, and standardized threat modeling is limited; no protocol-centric risk assessment framework has been established yet. This paper presents a systematic security analysis of four emerging AI agent communication protocols. First, we develop a structured threat modeling analysis that examines protocol architectures, trust assumptions, interaction patterns, and lifecycle behaviors to identify protocol-specific and cross-protocol risk surfaces. Second, we introduce a qualitative risk assessment framework that iden...