{"paper":{"title":"The Misattribution Gap: When Memory Poisoning Looks Like Model Failure in Agentic AI Systems","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":["cs.AI","cs.LG"],"primary_cat":"cs.CR","authors_text":"Ismail Hossain, Md Jahangir Alam, Sai Puppala, Sajedul Talukder, Syed Bahauddin Alam, Tanzim Ahad","submitted_at":"2026-05-12T20:21:47Z","abstract_excerpt":"Multi-agent AI pipelines typically assume that agent misconduct originates from model misalignment. We identify a structural failure in this assumption, the \\emph{Misattribution Gap}, where memory-layer attacks produce behaviors indistinguishable from model failure, causing defenders to apply the wrong remediation. We formalize \\emph{Semantic Norm Drift} (SND) as a third path to agent misconduct, distinct from emergent misalignment and collusion. In SND, a policy-formatted document enters a shared vector store through normal uploads and later reappears as trusted system context after provenanc"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2605.22842","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2605.22842/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}