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About this paper
Huijun Zhou, Xiaohan Zhang, Haozhe Zhang, Haoyang Zhang, Mi Zhang, Min Yang
Fudan University and Central South University researchers conducted the first large-scale measurement study of authentication security in real-world remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, identifying 7,973 live servers. They found that 40.55% were unauthenticated and all 119 OAuth-enabled servers examined exhibited at least one authentication flaw, leading to 9 CVE assignments.
Key insights
- A significant portion of remote MCP servers (40.55%) operate without any authentication, exposing sensitive tool interfaces.
- Every OAuth-enabled MCP server analyzed (119 out of 119) contained at least one authentication flaw, with dynamic client registration and open client environment flaws being most prevalent.
- The rapid evolution of the MCP specification, the intermediary role of MCP servers, and widespread insecure adoption of DCR are root causes for the pervasive authentication weaknesses observed.
Summary by alphaXiv.
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