Every inference endpoint should require authentication, even for internal consumers. API keys or OAuth tokens identify each consumer, enabling per-consumer rate limiting, usage tracking, and forensic attribution. Without per-consumer identity, the organisation cannot distinguish legitimate high-volume usage from model extraction attacks, and it cannot attribute anomalous query patterns to specific consumers.

The authentication mechanism should support revocation (disabling a compromised key without affecting other consumers), rotation (periodically replacing keys), and granular permissions (different consumers may have different rate limits or access to different model versions). For external consumers (deployers, integrators), the authentication credentials are provisioned through a governed onboarding process and documented in the deployer agreement.

Per-consumer identity also supports the contractual controls against model extraction: if a deployer is suspected of systematic querying for extraction purposes, the organisation can review that consumer’s query history. The authentication configuration, the per-consumer rate limits, and the credential management process are documented in Module 9.

Key outputs

• Mandatory authentication on all inference endpoints
• Per-consumer identity with revocation and rotation support
• Governed credential provisioning for external consumers
• Module 9 AISDP documentation