Politeness vs Enforcement: Why "Set HTTPS_PROXY" Isn't a Security Control

If your agent egress story is "we set HTTPS_PROXY to point at the proxy," the proxy is asking nicely. The kernel has no opinion on what the agent does next. This post is about the line between asking nicely and actually preventing the thing. The line is whether the kernel agrees with you. Everything on the wrong side of that line is policy. Everything on the right side is a control. The bestiary Plenty of common AI security controls live on the asking-nicely side. A short catalog: HTTPS_PROXY ,