Maintenance and Updates › Handling Security Updates
AI Agent HandbookAll chapters Maintenance and Updates › Handling Security UpdatesOne section · Sections in this chapter10 / 19 ↓
Security is an ongoing concern. Vulnerabilities are discovered in libraries and frameworks regularly. When a security issue affects your agent, you need to update quickly.
Monitor Security Advisories
Keep track of security advisories for your dependencies. Many package managers can check for known vulnerabilities:
## For Python projects
pip-audit
## Or using uv
uv pip checkThese tools scan your dependencies and report known security issues.
Prioritize Security Updates
When a security vulnerability is announced, assess its severity:
- Critical: Actively exploited, affects your agent directly. Update immediately.
- High: Serious vulnerability, but not yet widely exploited. Update within days.
- Medium: Potential issue, but requires specific conditions. Update in your next maintenance cycle.
- Low: Minor issue or doesn't affect your usage. Update when convenient.
For critical and high-severity issues, follow an expedited update process:
- Update the dependency in development
- Run basic tests to ensure nothing breaks
- Deploy to staging
- Deploy to production quickly
- Monitor closely
Security updates sometimes can't wait for your normal testing cycle. It's better to deploy quickly and monitor carefully than to leave a serious vulnerability exposed.
Keep Dependencies Updated
Don't wait for security issues to update dependencies. Regularly update to the latest stable versions as part of routine maintenance. This keeps you current and reduces the risk of falling far behind.
A good practice is to review and update dependencies monthly:
## Check for outdated packages
pip list --outdated
## Update specific packages
pip install --upgrade package-name
## Update requirements.txt
pip freeze > requirements.txtTest after updating to ensure nothing breaks.