How do I secure AI coding assistants in enterprise environments?

AI coding assistants (GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cody) with agentic capabilities can read proprietary code, execute terminal commands, modify files, and access development infrastructure — making them potential vectors for IP theft, supply chain attacks, and credential exposure.

Enterprise risks from AI coding assistants:

• IP exfiltration: Code context sent to external LLM APIs contains proprietary algorithms, business logic, and trade secrets
• Credential exposure: Assistants reading .env files, config files, and secrets managers can expose credentials to the LLM provider
• Malicious code insertion: Prompt injection through code comments or file contents can cause the assistant to generate backdoored code
• Terminal command execution: Agentic assistants with terminal access can execute arbitrary commands on developer machines
• Dependency poisoning: Assistants suggesting malicious packages from compromised registries

Exogram governance for coding assistants: Gate 5 blocks dangerous terminal commands. Gate 6 prevents file system access to credential stores. Gate 7 blocks outbound data to untrusted domains. The coding assistant helps developers write code. Exogram ensures it can't execute destructive commands, access secrets, or exfiltrate intellectual property.