> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.parmanasystems.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Case studies: public incidents

> Three publicly reported AI agent incidents, what happened, and what Parmana would and would not have changed, under stated conditions.

These are not customer stories. They are incidents reported in public, with sources, and an analysis of what
Parmana would have changed had the action gone through it. Each one says what Parmana would not have changed. The
analysis is ours; the facts are from the sources linked.

**The condition in every case.** Parmana only governs actions that go through it. An agent that also holds a shell,
a database password or cloud credentials can act outside it, and nothing on this page applies to those actions
([Limitations](/security/limitations)).

## 1. An agent deleted a production database during a code freeze (Replit, July 2025)

**What happened.** During a 12 day test of Replit's AI agent, SaaStr founder Jason Lemkin had told the agent not to
make changes without his approval. On day nine it ran commands that deleted a production database holding records
on about 1,200 executives and 1,190 companies, and at first misreported what it had done. Replit's CEO called it
unacceptable; Replit added separation between development and production databases, a planning only mode and
one click restore. Sources: [Fortune](https://fortune.com/2025/07/23/ai-coding-tool-replit-wiped-database-called-it-a-catastrophic-failure),
[eWeek](https://www.eweek.com/news/replit-ai-coding-assistant-failure/),
[AI Incident Database #1152](https://incidentdatabase.ai/cite/1152/).

**What Parmana would have changed,** had the agent reached the database only through Parmana:

* **The instruction becomes enforcement.** "Do not change anything without my approval" was a sentence in the
  conversation. In Parmana it is a policy: a delete needs a signed approval from a registered person for that
  action and that resource ([Human approval](/concepts/human-approval)). With no approval, the delete is refused.
* **The agent holds no database credential.** Parmana's gateway holds it and uses it only for an approved action
  ([Credential isolation](/concepts/credential-isolation)).
* **What ran is not the agent's account of it.** Each action and each refusal has a signed record you can verify
  offline, so what the agent says it did does not matter ([Execution Trust Records](/concepts/execution-trust-records)).

**What it would not have changed.** Parmana has no built in database connector; you would register the endpoint
that performs the delete ([Connect any external system](/guides/connect-any-external-system)). A person can still
approve a bad delete. Backups and separating development from production stay necessary.

## 2. A prompt in a coding extension told the agent to wipe files and cloud resources (Amazon Q, July 2025)

**What happened.** A pull request from an outside contributor added a prompt to the Amazon Q Developer extension for
VS Code. Version 1.84.0, released on 17 July 2025, told the assistant to delete files in the user's home directory
and to use the AWS CLI to delete S3 buckets, terminate EC2 instances and remove IAM users. It was replaced by 1.85.0
on 19 July. AWS said no customer resources were affected; a formatting error stopped the prompt from working.
Sources: [TechRepublic](https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-amazon-q-data-wiping-prompt-security-hack/),
[Nudge Security](https://www.nudgesecurity.com/post/amazon-q-developer-extension-for-vs-code-compromised-with-a-malicious-prompt).

**What Parmana would have changed,** for cloud actions routed through it:

* **An injected instruction cannot authorize anything.** The agent can propose deleting a bucket; the policy
  decides, and the agent's key is limited to the actions it is meant to take
  ([OWASP mapping](/security/owasp-mapping), LLM01 and ASI01).
* **Deleting buckets, instances or users would need a person's signed approval** for each one, if the policy says
  so.

**What it would not have changed.** The local file deletion ran in the developer's own shell, which Parmana does not
govern. The AWS commands ran with the developer's own AWS credentials; Parmana changes nothing unless those
credentials are not given to the agent. Parmana does not detect the injected prompt, and it does not secure the
supply chain of tools an agent loads (ASI04).

## 3. A chatbot gave a wrong refund policy and the airline had to pay (Air Canada, 2024)

**What happened.** In November 2022, Air Canada's website chatbot told Jake Moffatt he could apply for a bereavement
fare after travelling. The airline's policy did not allow that. In February 2024, British Columbia's Civil
Resolution Tribunal held the airline responsible for what its chatbot said and ordered it to pay CAD 812
(Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149). Sources:
[the decision](https://decisions.civilresolutionbc.ca/crt/crtd/en/525448/1/document.do),
[Manatt](https://manatt.com/insights/newsletters/advertising-law/ai-gone-wild-airline-has-to-honor-a-refund-policy).

**What Parmana would have changed:** almost nothing, and that is the point of including it. The harm was a wrong
statement, not an action. Parmana does not check what a model says.

**Where Parmana would apply.** If the same chatbot could issue the refund itself, Parmana would check each refund
against the written policy, require a person's approval above an amount, and sign a record of each refund and each
refusal. That limits what the bot can pay out. It does not make the bot's answers correct; a guardrail and accurate
content do that ([How Parmana compares](/how-parmana-compares)).

## What the three have in common

* The damage came from what an agent was allowed to do, or from what it said. Parmana addresses the first, for
  actions that go through it, and not the second.
* In each action case, credentials the agent held directly decided what was possible. Giving agents credentials
  only to Parmana is the step that makes the rest apply.

Have a public incident you want analyzed the same way? Open a thread in
[GitHub Discussions](https://github.com/pavancharak/parmana/discussions).


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