Model Context Protocol: Security Risks & Mitigations

This guide explains the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a standardized way for LLM assistants to discover and invoke tools and resources via hosts, clients, and servers across data and transport layers—then focuses on security risks and mitigations as MCP becomes part of the control plane. It outlines key threats (prompt/indirect injection, tool poisoning/shadowing, confused deputy, token passthrough, session hijacking, local server compromise, excessive scopes, and weak auditability) and prescriptive defenses (user-bound identity and consent, least-privilege scopes, token audience validation, sandboxing, secure session handling, allowlists, input/output validation, centralized correlated logging, and approval gates). Examples such as SOC Prime’s Uncoder AI, AI/DR Bastion, and AIDEFEND illustrate adoption, with the core recommendation to treat MCP as privileged integration infrastructure with strong controls and comprehensive monitoring.