aidefense-framework

AIDEFEND™ — AI Defense Framework

AIDEFEND is an open, implementation-oriented knowledge base of defensive controls for AI, machine-learning, LLM, multimodal, RAG, and agentic systems. It organizes defenses by security function, protected component, lifecycle phase, and the external security references they address.

• Live framework: https://aidefend.net
• MCP and REST service: https://github.com/edward-playground/aidefend-mcp

Current source version

Version 1.20261101 provides:

• 311 actionable defensive controls: 35 standalone techniques and 276 leaf sub-techniques
• implementation guidance, production-oriented examples, verification guidance, and explicit scope boundaries
• assessment against nine external AI security frameworks and risk catalogs
• four exploration views: Tactics, Pillars, Phases, and Frameworks
• generated JSON datasets for external tools and integrations
• optional browser-side WebMCP tools for read-only framework lookup

Parent families are not implementation controls and do not receive independent control credit. Implementation-guidance entries are methods within their owning actionable control, not additional controls.

The optional WebMCP module loads the self-contained @mcp-b/[email protected] IIFE from unpkg.com with a pinned SHA-384 Subresource Integrity value, then registers tools only when document.modelContext.registerTool is available. A compatible native browser implementation bypasses the polyfill. Core framework browsing and the public datasets do not depend on WebMCP; when the runtime or API is unavailable, no WebMCP tools are registered.

Framework coverage

Every actionable AIDEFEND control is assessed against the following external reference set. Each assessment contains one or more canonical relationships or an explicit N/A when no defensible direct relationship applies.

1. MITRE ATLAS
2. MAESTRO
3. OWASP LLM Top 10 2026
4. OWASP ML Top 10 2023
5. OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026
6. NIST Adversarial Machine Learning 2025
7. Cisco Integrated AI Security and Safety Framework v2.0
8. Google Secure AI Framework 2.0 - Risks
9. Databricks AI Security Framework 3.0

A mapping indicates a defensible relationship between a threat or risk and an AIDEFEND control. It is not a certification claim, an implementation attestation, or evidence that a specific deployment is secure.

Mapping relevance is reviewed at the actionable standalone-technique or leaf-sub-technique level. A non-actionable parent family’s mapping list is the de-duplicated union of its reviewed child mappings for navigation and reverse lookup only; it must not be used as implementation evidence or control credit.

Explore the framework

Public data

The generated dataset is available at data/data.json. A compact navigation index is available at data/tactics-index.json. The additive data/framework-migrations.json registry identifies the current framework edition and semantic successors for superseded identifiers; it does not carry AIDEFEND mappings forward without a target-edition review.

The tool-neutral integration export in data/integration/ repackages the same release for downstream converters (first consumer: the Precogly AI security library pack). manifest.json locks the AIDEFEND version, release tag, data.json checksum and per-file checksums; controls.json lists the 311 actionable controls with plain-text descriptions, scope boundaries and site links, plus the 58 navigation-only families flagged actionable: false; threat-control-joins.json inverts defendsAgainst into one record per external threat item with the AIDEFEND controls and per-pair rationales; and threat-catalogs/<framework_key>.json carries upstream identifiers, names and structure only, never third-party descriptions. This release exports MITRE ATLAS, OWASP LLM Top 10 2026, OWASP ML Top 10 2023 and OWASP Top 10 for Agentic Applications 2026; the other five mapped frameworks are listed as deferred in the manifest. Every file carries schema_version and aidefend_version, the layout only gains fields within a schema version, and the folder is regenerated and verified with every release. A threat-to-control mapping says a control is relevant to a threat; it does not say the threat is mitigated, that a system is secure, or that any standard is satisfied.

The source of truth for AIDEFEND-authored framework content is tactics/*.js. Do not edit generated JSON files directly.

Generation intentionally strips source-only howTo detail, warnings, and other authoring fields according to the dataset-generation rules. Consumers must not assume that generated JSON is a complete mirror of the tracked tactic source.

The public dataset uses additive schema 2.3. version.dataVersion is derived from the AIDEFEND source version, and version.generatedAt records the UTC generation time. The compact tactics index carries its own schema version and the same generation timestamp.

scopeBoundary is optional structured boundary metadata. implementationGuidanceIds align one-to-one with the lightweight guidance strings; a guidance ID such as AID-H-002.004-G004 identifies an implementation method inside its owning control and is not a separate control or assessment result. Consumers of older data should treat a missing toolsSourceAvailable field as an empty array and ignore unknown additive fields.

Tool recommendations use three licensing and delivery categories: toolsOpenSource is limited to OSI-licensed software; toolsSourceAvailable covers non-OSI tooling and ends each entry with (<exact license>; source-available) or (<exact license>; open-weight); and toolsCommercial covers proprietary or vendor-hosted offerings. Standards, datasets, specifications, documentation, methodologies, and papers are not classified as tools.

Local use

The website is static. Serve the repository with any local static web server:

For example:

python -m http.server 8080

Then open http://localhost:8080.

Source previews use #t=... links so controls also open in new tabs and survive reloads. To build complete, directly addressable technique pages, run node scripts/build-site.mjs and serve _site instead.

For GitHub Pages, set Settings > Pages > Build and deployment > Source to GitHub Actions. The existing Build and deploy readable website workflow publishes _site, including /techniques/<ID>/ pages. Publishing the repository from a branch runs a second deployment that can overwrite those generated pages. The workflow checks the publishing source before deployment and checks a technique page and the application module after deployment.

The core framework data, DOMPurify, and Tailwind browser bundle are stored locally. The pages request Google Fonts, the main page also requests Google Analytics, and the optional WebMCP module loads its exact-version, integrity-pinned runtime from unpkg.com. Blocking those third-party origins does not remove the local framework data, but it can disable WebMCP, analytics, or hosted fonts.

Public dataset generation

Requirements:

• Node.js 22.7 or newer
• No package installation is required

npm run generate
npm run count
npm run generate -- --check

npm run generate regenerates the public dataset from the tracked tactic source and validates the public keyword lock and technique hierarchy. npm run generate -- --check performs the same validation without rewriting tracked outputs. These public commands do not run the maintainer-only source-freshness, mapping, semantic-boundary, or external-reference review workflow.

Run npm test with Node.js and Python 3 available. The core public regression tests use the Python standard library. The optional reconstruction numerical test runs when Torch, NumPy and Pillow are installed; otherwise that case is explicitly skipped.

Repository structure

tactics/                 AIDEFEND framework source of truth
data/                    Generated public datasets and keyword lock
data/integration/        Tool-neutral integration export (manifest, controls, threat catalogs, threat-to-control joins)
scripts/                 Public dataset generation and count tools
js/, css/                Main website implementation and vendored browser libraries
kids/                    AIDEFEND Kids experience and vendored browser libraries
index.html               Main static application
webmcp-tools.js          Browser-side WebMCP query tools

Release versions and automatic tags

To publish a new Framework version:

1. Set the same 1.YYYYMMDD version in package.json and aidefend-intro.js.
2. Run npm run generate, review the content and generated changes, and commit them together.
3. Push or merge to main. The release workflow runs the repository tests, verifies generated outputs, and creates the annotated v1.YYYYMMDD tag on the exact validated commit, then publishes the matching GitHub Release page.

Each version is published once. Later commits with the same version preserve its original tag; a content release needs a new version. The current date format supports one release version per calendar day. Existing tags are never moved, overwritten, or deleted, and version rollback or conflicting tag targets fail the workflow. If validation fails, fix the issue and retry the workflow on main; no tag is created until validation passes. To inspect the proposed tag without publishing, run node scripts/release-tag.mjs in a complete checkout with the remote tags fetched.

Every published tag gets a GitHub Release page built by scripts/release-notes.mjs from the tagged commits only (never from the working tree), so integrators can see what changed without reading commits:

• the data version, citation format (AID-X-NNN[.MMM] plus data version) and the claim boundary;
• controls added, retired, moved to a new id, renamed, or changed in place since the previous v1.YYYYMMDD tag, with the facet that changed (description, scope boundary, pillar or phase, guidance, tools, mappings) and threat-mapping-only changes listed separately;
• external framework edition changes read from framework-migrations.json;
• the integration-export checksums from data/integration/manifest.json;
• attached files: data.json, tactics-index.json, framework-migrations.json, aidefend-integration-<tag>.zip, release-changes.json (the complete machine-readable diff) and SHA256SUMS.txt.

On an ordinary push the workflow creates the Release page only when the tag has none yet and never rewrites an existing one. To rebuild the page of an older tag, run the workflow manually with the release_tag input set to that tag. To preview the notes locally, run node scripts/release-notes.mjs --tag v1.YYYYMMDD --out-dir <empty dir>.

Pull requests run validation with read-only permissions. Only the subsequent main-branch publication job receives contents: write, using GitHub’s temporary token without an additional repository secret. Automated tag pushes do not trigger another GitHub Actions workflow through GITHUB_TOKEN; future tag-based deployment workflows must be connected explicitly. The website continues to deploy from main. This automation creates Git tags and their GitHub Release pages, not npm packages, Engine promotions, or semantic-review approvals.

Security and implementation notice

AIDEFEND provides defensive control objectives, implementation patterns, examples, mappings, and verification guidance. Environment-specific thresholds, products, trust boundaries, regulatory obligations, and operational approval requirements must be evaluated by qualified practitioners before production deployment.

Example code is educational implementation guidance, not a drop-in guarantee of security. Validate it against the exact platform version, deployment architecture, threat model, and organizational policy in which it will run.

To report a vulnerability, follow SECURITY.md. Use GitHub private vulnerability reporting when available; never place exploit details, credentials, personal data, or sensitive evidence in a public issue.

Licensing

AIDEFEND uses a deliberate split-license model:

• Software and website implementation code: Apache License 2.0 — see LICENSE
• Original framework content and data: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International — see LICENSE-CONTENT
• Detailed scope and attribution: LICENSING.md
• AIDEFEND names, marks, logos, and badges: not granted for unrestricted brand use — see TRADEMARKS.md
• Bundled third-party components and data: retain their upstream terms — see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md

Suggested content attribution:

AIDEFEND AI Defense Framework, created by Edward Lee, https://aidefend.net, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

When sharing modified content, also provide a link to CC BY 4.0 and indicate that changes were made. See LICENSING.md for the complete repository scope and attribution requirements.

Licensing does not grant permission to imply affiliation, certification, approval, or endorsement by AIDEFEND or any referenced framework owner.

Acknowledgments and independence

AIDEFEND synthesizes defensive knowledge and references identifiers or concepts from MITRE ATLAS, MITRE D3FEND, MITRE ATT&CK, MAESTRO, OWASP, NIST, Cisco, Google, and Databricks resources.

AIDEFEND is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or officially connected to The MITRE Corporation, the Cloud Security Alliance, OWASP, NIST, Cisco, Google, or Databricks.

External names, identifiers, titles, and other third-party material remain subject to their respective owners’ rights. AIDEFEND’s licenses apply only to AIDEFEND-authored code, content, and data as defined in LICENSING.md. See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for bundled third-party software and redistributed data notices.

Cisco AI Security and Safety Framework v2

Cisco mappings use the current v2.0.0 taxonomy announced on September 9, 2026: 19 objectives, 41 techniques, and 115 subtechniques. The Frameworks View retains Cisco objective names and uses AIDEFEND-authored summaries of their child techniques. Mapping decisions follow the complete official technique/subtechnique record and each AIDEFEND control’s deployment mechanism. Definitions are primary; Cisco’s own examples and standards mappings can clarify ambiguous scope, without creating transitive equivalence between frameworks. Shared keywords or an objective heading alone do not establish defense coverage.

The current catalog and source provenance are available in cisco-framework.js and generated data/cisco-framework.json. Cisco’s framework key remains stable; identifiers and names represent v2 only. The migration registry and WebMCP resolver report the current edition for bare IDs, reject unsupported editions and retired IDs, and report ID/name conflicts instead of silently interpreting a v1 concept as v2. Historical conflict metadata does not restore v1 mappings or automatically select a successor.

Parent-family mappings are derived child unions for navigation. All nine framework views list and count only actionable controls that actually match the selected threat group. Full and High describe relevance within the defense’s stated scope, not verified deployment. Repairable implementation defects are tracked separately from relevance; a missing primary defense mechanism still cannot earn coverage from a title or tool name.

Official sources: Cisco v2 announcement and Cisco taxonomy.

Maintainer

AIDEFEND is led by Edward Lee. Connect on LinkedIn.