Pillar Security

Agents that read customer records, call tools and act for a company create risks that a chatbot filter never had to consider, and Pillar Security was started in 2023 to deal with them. The platform covers the lifecycle of AI applications and agents, from finding what exists, through testing it, to blocking unauthorised actions while it runs. On 9 November 2026 its founders wrote that Vanta had signed a definitive agreement to acquire it.

A map of agents, models and MCP servers

Discovery comes first. Using agentless integrations, Pillar catalogues agents, models, prompts, frameworks, tools, MCP servers, skills and coding agents, including shadow systems deployed without approval. Posture checks then trace dependencies across models and agent harnesses and scan configurations, permissions and identities for the exposures attackers reach first. Approved models, frameworks and data sovereignty standards can be defined so that violations are flagged.

Attacks run against the whole system

For testing, the product runs multi turn adversarial attacks on complete AI systems, covering tool orchestration, permission escalation and agentic workflows. Findings are proved with attack transcripts, recordings and reproduction steps, and validated results feed adaptive guardrails. At runtime those guardrails detect malicious intent, monitor tool calls and decisions, and mask or block personal data, credentials and secrets before they reach a model.

Research and the SAIL framework

The company's research team has reported critical flaws, including a sandbox escape in n8n and an issue in Google's Gemini CLI, both described by the founders as rated CVSS 10. Pillar also published SAIL, a framework that maps 91 AI risks across seven lifecycle phases and which the founders say has passed 50,000 downloads. The platform runs in the cloud, self hosted or in a hybrid arrangement, and the site lists compliance reporting mapped to common standards.

Key facts

Founded: 2023 Founders: Dor Sarig and Ziv Karliner Recognition stated by the company: 2026 Gartner Cool Vendor in AI Software Security; CRN 10 Hottest AI Security Startups of 2026 Ownership event stated by the company: definitive agreement for Vanta to acquire Pillar Security, announced 9 November 2026