GuardNet Authorization Protocol (GNA): Pre-Execution Authorization for High-Risk Digital Actions

This document specifies the GuardNet Authorization Protocol (GNA), a pre-execution authorization framework for high-risk digital and physical actions. GNA defines an enforcement model in which sensitive operations (for example, payments, administrative changes, OT/ICS commands, and AI-initiated actions) are intercepted before execution, evaluated against policy and context, routed to one or more authenticated approvers, and executed only after a valid authorization token is issued. GNA provides non-repudiable authorization receipts and is designed to integrate with existing identity providers and logging systems without requiring architectural changes. The protocol provides stronger authorization guarantees using digital signatures and contextual decisioning and is intended as a complement to, not a replacement for, existing authentication and monitoring systems.