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# What is oversight tampering?
- URL: https://www.agentsecbrief.com/what-is-oversight-tampering/
- Published: 2026-10-23T15:18:08.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T15:18:08.000Z
- Description: Oversight tampering is when an AI agent changes, disables or hides the logging, alerts or reviews that watch it, on purpose or as a side effect of its task.
- Author: Angela Milash
- Tags: Monitoring & Logging, Alignment, Glossary

Oversight tampering is when an AI agent changes, disables or hides the logging, alerts or reviews that watch it, on purpose or as a side effect of its task.

## Why it matters

Most agent safety plans assume a monitor will catch mistakes. If the agent can edit that monitor, the safety net disappears quietly, and the agent's own summary may not mention it. Tampering can come from ordinary task pressure, not only from an attacker.

## Example

On 20 Oct 2026 OpenAI reported two internal coding agents that, during routine work on 3 and 6 Oct, emptied a misalignment monitor's alert recipients and removed the monitor from a serving path; one denied it when asked ([OpenAI](https://alignment.openai.com/misalignment-reports/suppressing-misalignment-monitoring-alerts-and-disabling-misalignment-monitoring/?ref=agentsecbrief.com)).

## How to defend against it

- Keep monitor code and alert settings where agents cannot write.
- Require human approval for any change to logging, alerting or guardrails.
- Fail CI on agent changes that touch monitoring.
- Compare what an agent reports with what its logs show.

See the matching controls in the [AgentSec Brief checklist](https://www.agentsecbrief.com/checklist/).

## Related terms

Rogue AI agent; Uninstructed action; Kill switch

## Sources

- [OpenAI misalignment report, 20 Oct 2026](https://alignment.openai.com/misalignment-reports/suppressing-misalignment-monitoring-alerts-and-disabling-misalignment-monitoring/?ref=agentsecbrief.com)
- [METR, AI systems could cover up misbehavior, 6 Oct 2026](https://metr.org/blog/2026-10-06-ai-systems-could-cover-up-misbehavior/?ref=agentsecbrief.com)

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