How do I install MCP Security Guard?

Copy the stdio config for Cursor, Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or VS Code on this page. It uses the publisher's install, not a PlugMCP proxy.

Does MCP Security Guard need an API key?

No required environment variable is listed on this record.

What transport does MCP Security Guard use?

MCP Security Guard runs locally over stdio.

When was MCP Security Guard last checked?

Last checked 2026-11-10. Audit MCP servers for tool poisoning, rug pulls and supply-chain risk (OWASP MCP Top 10).

MCP Security Guard MCP server

MCP Security Guard

Find out if the MCP servers you installed are lying to your AI.

Local audit for tool poisoning, rug pulls, tool shadowing, hidden Unicode and leaked secrets, mapped to the OWASP MCP Top 10. Nothing leaves your machine unless you opt in.

🚀 Quick Install

Cursor

Click the button above, or use this deep link: cursor://anysphere.cursor-deeplink/mcp/install?name=mcp-security-guard&config=eyJjb21tYW5kIjoibnB4IiwiYXJncyI6WyIteSIsIm1jcC1zZWN1cml0eS1ndWFyZCJdfQ==

Or manually add to .cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-security-guard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-security-guard"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Via Plugin (recommended)

/plugin marketplace add petrovicistefan/mcp-security-guard
/plugin install mcp-security-guard@mcp-security-guard

Then run /mcp-audit or ask Claude "are my MCP servers safe?"

Via CLI

claude mcp add mcp-security-guard -- npx -y mcp-security-guard

Claude Desktop

Add to your Claude Desktop config (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json on macOS, %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json on Windows):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-security-guard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-security-guard"]
    }
  }
}

VS Code

Click the button above, or manually add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-security-guard": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "mcp-security-guard"]
    }
  }
}

Command Line

npx -y mcp-security-guard audit --project-only

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Why MCP Security Guard?

Your code is covered by other tools. This one checks the MCP servers that inject text into your AI's context.

MCP Security Guard audits every MCP server Claude (and other AI clients) can reach: servers you configured, servers that plugins bring, and servers from Claude Desktop and other clients on your machine.

How It Compares

As of October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Feature	MCP Security Guard	snyk/agent-scan	cisco-ai-defense/mcp-scanner	riseandignite/mcp-shield
Claude Code native plugin	✅	❌	❌	❌
Runtime hooks (pre/post tool-use)	✅	❌	❌	❌
Rug-pull pinning (SHA-256)	✅ Tools, skills, CLAUDE.md	Limited	❌	❌
OWASP MCP Top 10 mapping	✅ Every finding	❌	❌	❌
SARIF output	✅ GitHub Action	❌	❌	❌
CycloneDX BOM export	✅ Agent inventory	❌	❌	❌
Fully local (zero network)	✅ Default	Varies	Varies	Varies
Supply-chain checks	✅ OSV, npm, PyPI	Varies	Varies	Varies
Tool poisoning detection	✅ 26/27 attacks	Varies	Varies	Varies
License	MIT	Apache 2.0	MIT	MIT

Our differentiators:

Native Claude Code integration with a /mcp-audit slash command and runtime protection
Comprehensive rug-pull protection: pins and verifies tool definitions, skills, commands, subagents, and CLAUDE.md files
Every finding mapped to OWASP MCP Top 10 for compliance and remediation guidance
GitHub Action with SARIF for code scanning alerts on pull requests
Agent Bill of Materials (BOM) in CycloneDX 1.6 format for audits and compliance
Privacy-first: everything runs locally by default; network access is explicit opt-in

Use Cases

1. Individual Developers

Protect your local AI setup.

Audit MCP servers before and after installation
Get warned if a server's tool definitions change (rug pulls)
Runtime protection: block credentials from being sent, detect poisoned outputs
Pin trusted servers and skills for continuous verification

# Scan before installing a new server
npx mcp-security-guard scan server-config.json --confirm-launch

# Pin your reviewed servers
npx mcp-security-guard pin

# Check everything is still safe
npx mcp-security-guard audit

2. Pull Request CI Checks

Block risky MCP servers and poisoned skills in code review.

Fail PRs that add:

MCP servers with tool poisoning, unpinned packages, or privileged Docker images
Skills or CLAUDE.md files with instruction overrides or credential exfiltration
Vulnerable dependencies or typosquatted packages

Findings appear in GitHub's code scanning interface with OWASP MCP Top 10 references.

- uses: petrovicistefan/mcp-security-guard@main
  with:
    fail-on: high

3. Teams and Enterprises

Central security policy for your organization.

With the Team plan:

Admins publish one policy (allowed/blocked servers, plugins, pinned versions)
Everyone's plugin enforces it automatically, even offline
Approval flow: developers request, admins approve
Fleet inventory: see what MCP servers your team runs (opt-in with consent)
Compliance evidence: OWASP MCP Top 10 coverage report for audits

What It Checks

MCP Security Guard discovers servers from every place AI clients load them: user, local and project scope, servers shipped inside installed plugins, claude_desktop_config.json, Claude Desktop extensions, organization-managed managed-mcp.json, other clients on the machine (Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf), and claude.ai connectors you've used.

It scans everything a server puts into the AI's context: tools, server instructions, prompts, resources and resource templates.

Check	What It Catches
Tool poisoning	Instruction overrides, "don't tell the user", `<IMPORTANT>` tags, directives to read secrets (`~/.ssh`, `.env`), conversation harvesting, exfiltration via URLs/parameters/Markdown images, HTML comments, encoded payloads
Full-schema poisoning	Same checks on parameter names, descriptions, defaults, enums, `required`, plus non-schema text in `type`
Hidden text	Zero-width, bidi-control and Unicode-tag characters, ANSI terminal escapes, homoglyph tool names
Tool shadowing	Server descriptions referencing another server's tools, tool-name collisions between servers
Rug pulls	Tool definitions or launch commands that changed after you pinned them (SHA-256 per tool). Skills, commands, subagents, CLAUDE.md and hooks of a plugin that changed after pinning (plugins changing files under the same version are flagged `high`). Re-checked automatically at every session start
Capabilities & score	Per-tool classification (execute, delete, write, egress), unauthenticated remote write access, 0–100 score and A–F grade per server, recommended permission rules
Supply chain	OSV vulnerabilities and malicious versions, typosquats, missing or brand-new packages, install scripts, publisher changes (opt-in network check)
Runtime	Hooks on every MCP call: ask before credentials are sent, warn on injected instructions or credentials in outputs, content-free audit log
Policy	`.mcp-security.json` approved/blocked servers and hosts, enforced in audits, CI and at session start
Toxic flows	Servers holding all three legs of the "lethal trifecta" (untrusted input, private data, egress capability), on their own or together. A posture note (`low` or `info`), not a defect
Agent context	Skills and their scripts, slash commands, subagents, rules, `CLAUDE.md` and plugin hooks: instruction overrides, "don't tell the user", invisible text, HTML comments addressed to the model, directives to read credential files, commands that upload credentials, download-and-run, encoded execution, infostealer scripts, pre-approved unrestricted

Everything runs locally. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you opt in.

OWASP MCP Top 10 Coverage

Every finding is tagged with its OWASP MCP Top 10 id, in reports and in SARIF.

ID	Risk	Coverage
MCP01	Token Mismanagement & Secret Exposure	✅ Plaintext secrets in env, headers, args and URLs. At runtime, asks before a credential is sent to an MCP server and warns when one comes back
MCP02	Privilege Escalation via Scope Creep	✅ Capability inventory (execute, delete, write, egress), ready-to-paste `permissions.ask` rules, privileged or broadly mounted containers
MCP03	Tool Poisoning	✅ 26/27 published techniques detected, including full-schema poisoning, shadowing and name collisions, plus rug-pull pinning
MCP04	Supply Chain Attacks	✅ Unpinned packages, images and git sources; OSV vulnerabilities and malicious versions; typosquats; new packages; install scripts; publisher changes
MCP05	Command Injection & Execution	✅ Flags tools that can execute commands; `adversarial_test` finds injectable parameters in servers you own
MCP06	Prompt Injection via Contextual Payloads	✅ In tool metadata and, at runtime, in tool outputs (English patterns)
MCP07	Insufficient AuthN/AuthZ	✅ Plain-HTTP remotes; remote servers exposing write or exec tools without authentication; OAuth detection
MCP08	Lack of Audit and Telemetry	✅ Local, content-free audit log of every MCP call, with `query_audit_log`
MCP09	Shadow MCP Servers	✅ Discovery across user, project, local, plugin and Claude Desktop configs; approved-server policy enforced in audits, CI and at session start
MCP10	Context Injection & Over-Sharing	✅ Conversation and system-prompt harvesting, Markdown-image exfiltration, credentials in outputs, network-egress inventory

What a local tool cannot do (planned for hosted Team plan): org-wide discovery and audit aggregation, OAuth scope review.

Quick Demo (1 Minute)

Try a synthetic offline comparison with no dependencies, account, or API key needed:

git clone https://github.com/petrovicistefan/mcp-security-guard.git
cd mcp-security-guard
node scripts/offline-demo.mjs

The demo checks two saved tool descriptions: one produces instruction-override and sensitive-path findings; the clean counterpart produces no findings. Run the scans yourself and generate an HTML report.

Tools

Tool	Network	Launches	Description
`list_mcp_servers`	❌	❌	Lists every MCP server configured for this project (user, local and project scope in Claude Code, plus Claude Desktop) with its transport. Read-only; launches nothing.
`audit_mcp_config`	❌	❌	Static audit of MCP server configuration: plaintext secrets in env/headers/args/URLs, plain-HTTP remote servers, unpinned npx/uvx packages, unpinned or privileged Docker containers, pipe-to-shell launch commands, and duplicate server names. Read-only; launches nothing.
`audit_server_tools`	❌	✅ Confirm	Connects to selected MCP servers, lists their tools, and checks every name, description and schema for tool poisoning, cross-server tool shadowing, and rug pulls. Never calls the scanned tools. Requires `confirm_launch: true`.
`pin_tools`	❌	✅ Confirm	Records a SHA-256 hash of every tool definition in `~/.claude/mcp-security/pins.json` for rug-pull detection. Pin only after reviewing an audit. Requires `confirm_launch: true`.
`audit_agent_context`	❌	❌	Scans CLAUDE.md, skills, slash commands, subagents, rules and plugin hooks for instruction overrides, requests to hide things from users, invisible text, credential exfiltration, and encoded execution. Read-only; launches nothing.
`pin_context`	❌	❌	Records SHA-256 of every skill, command, subagent, rule, CLAUDE.md and plugin hook config in `~/.claude/mcp-security/context-pins.json` for rug-pull detection in plugins. Pin only after reviewing an audit.
`analyze_tool_definitions`	❌	❌	Offline analysis of tool definitions you provide (e.g., `tools/list` output from a server you're developing). Useful in CI or before publishing. Never connects to anything.
`check_supply_chain`	✅ Confirm	❌	For npx/uvx servers, checks packages on npm/PyPI and OSV database: vulnerabilities, malicious versions, typosquats, install scripts, deprecation, publisher changes. Sends package names and versions only. Requires .

CI / GitHub Action

Fail pull requests that add risky MCP servers to .mcp.json, and show findings in GitHub code scanning:

name: MCP security
on: [pull_request]
permissions:
  contents: read
  security-events: write
jobs:
  audit:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: petrovicistefan/mcp-security-guard@main
        id: mcp
        with:
          fail-on: high          # critical | high | medium | low | info | none
      - uses: github/codeql-action/upload-sarif@v3
        if: always()
        with:
          sarif_file: ${{ steps.mcp.outputs.sarif-file }}

To also fail PRs that add poisoned skills, commands or CLAUDE.md, set context: true (second SARIF file in context-sarif-file).

Command line:

# Audit project-level MCP servers
npx mcp-security-guard audit --project-only --format sarif --output mcp.sarif

# For MCP server authors: analyze a saved tools/list result
npx mcp-security-guard analyze-tools tools.json --name my-server

# Scan skills, commands, subagents and CLAUDE.md
npx mcp-security-guard audit-context --project-only --fail-on high

# Pin what you've reviewed
npx mcp-security-guard pin-context

# Scan a server before installing it
npx mcp-security-guard scan server-config.json --confirm-launch

# Test your own server for command injection (calls tools)
npx mcp-security-guard adversarial my-server.mcp.json --server my-server --i-own-this-server --confirm-launch

# Fix what the audit found
npx mcp-security-guard fix --pin-versions            # npx pkg → [email protected]
npx mcp-security-guard fix --env-refs --write        # secrets → ${VAR} references
npx mcp-security-guard fix --permissions --confirm-launch --write

# Generate a team policy from current configuration
npx mcp-security-guard policy-init && git add .mcp-security.json

Output formats: --format markdown|json|sarif|html (HTML is a self-contained report file).

Exit codes: 0 clean, 1 findings at or above --fail-on, 2 usage error.

Interactive Dashboard

security_dashboard is an MCP App that hosts supporting MCP Apps (Claude Desktop, claude.ai, VS Code Copilot) render inline.

Shows every server with its score and grade, findings filterable by severity and server, OWASP MCP Top 10 breakdown, recommended permission rules, and Full scan and Pin buttons.

To use in Claude Desktop:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "mcp-security-guard": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/path/to/mcp-security-guard/plugin/dist/index.mjs"]
    }
  }
}

Ask Claude to "open the MCP security dashboard".

Develop locally: npm run dashboard:dev -- /path/to/project

Runtime Hooks

Hook	What It Does	Setting
`PreToolUse` on `mcp__*`	Asks for confirmation when arguments contain credentials	`MCP_SECURITY_SECRET_GUARD=ask` (default), `deny`, or `off`
`PostToolUse` on `mcp__*`	Warns when output contains injected instructions, hidden characters, exfiltration markup, or credentials	Always on
Audit log	`~/.claude/mcp-security/audit.jsonl`: server, tool, time, input hash and sizes. Never arguments or outputs. Rotates at 10 MB	`MCP_SECURITY_AUDIT_LOG=off` to disable

Hooks add ~40ms per MCP call.

Session-start check re-verifies pinned servers and stays silent unless something changed:

MCP_SECURITY_SESSION_CHECK=full (default): compare configs and re-list tools
MCP_SECURITY_SESSION_CHECK=config: compare configs only, launch nothing
MCP_SECURITY_SESSION_CHECK=off: disable

Team Plan (paid, opt-in)

Team keys are issued by hand for now: write to me.

With a team API key (MCP_SECURITY_API_KEY or plugin key setting), you get:

Central policy pushed by admin, enforced next to user/project policy (repository cannot loosen it)
Approved plugins (allowedPlugins, blockedPlugins) enforced in audits, CI, and at session start
Fleet inventory (opt-in with consent): names, versions, scopes, transport, packages/hostnames — never paths, args, env, secrets
Approval flow: team request, team approve, Slack-compatible webhook alerts
Keys and seats: admin creates/revokes per-developer keys; purchase sets seat limit
Web dashboard at /v1/team/dashboard: fleet, approvals, policy, keys, settings
Email alerts (up to 20/hour per org) next to webhook
Compliance evidence: team compliance writes Markdown report with OWASP MCP Top 10 controls, evidence, violations, and pending approvals

Admin actions are CLI only (not MCP tools), so injected text cannot trigger them.

mcp-security-guard team status
mcp-security-guard team report --dry-run
mcp-security-guard team request plugin some-plugin --note "for docs site"
mcp-security-guard team approvals --status pending      # admin
mcp-security-guard team approve apr_… --note ok         # admin
mcp-security-guard team policy-push policy.json         # admin
mcp-security-guard team keys create ana                 # admin
mcp-security-guard team settings --fleet on --webhook https://hooks.slack.com/… --email [email protected]

Everything above stays free. Free plugin is fully functional. See PRIVACY.md for what is sent.

Benchmark Results

Measured: detects 26/27 attacks from a corpus of publicly documented techniques, with 0 false positives on 13 hard benign samples and on 17 real servers (83 tools).

Techniques covered: tool poisoning and <IMPORTANT> tags (Invariant Labs), line jumping and ANSI escape deception (Trail of Bits), full-schema poisoning (CyberArk), tool shadowing, name collisions, zero-width/Unicode-tag/bidi smuggling, homoglyph names, base64 payloads, HTML comments, exfiltration via URLs/parameters/Markdown images.

See bench/RESULTS.md for full methodology and results.

Development

npm install
npm run build      # bundles to plugin/dist/ (committed, so plugin runs without npm install)
npm test
npm run bench      # false-positive gate on real servers (network; Docker images optional)

test/fixtures/poisoned-server.mjs is a deliberately malicious server used by the end-to-end test.

Contributing

Small, reproducible contributions are welcome: benign regression samples, synthetic detection cases, client configuration tests, and clearer examples.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

Contribution guide · Open tasks · Report a false positive

Security & Privacy

Found a vulnerability? See SECURITY.md
What is read, written and sent: PRIVACY.md
Changes: CHANGELOG.md

Trust model:

Read-only (except pin files, audit log, and policy-init)
Network only with explicit opt-in
Secrets masked in all output
Static checks reduce risk but don't prove a server safe

License

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

See LICENSE for the complete license text.

Limitations

Remote servers that require OAuth (most hosted MCP servers) cannot be scanned at the tool level: the scanner cannot reuse Claude Code's tokens. Their configuration is still audited.

About the Author

I'm Stefan Petrovici: passionate about IT, a husband and a father. I built MCP Security Guard on my own. I'm looking for a job.

I build web applications end to end—frontend, backend, APIs and deployment—and I'm happy to work on anything else that needs building. This repository shows how I work: tests, CI, careful documentation and attention to security.

I also build WordPress and WooCommerce plugins, available at pluginsforstores.com.

If your team is hiring, write to me at [email protected].

⭐ Support This Project

Found this useful? Star this repository!

A GitHub star helps other developers discover the project and lets you save it for later. Thanks for supporting open source!

MCP Security Guard is not affiliated with Anthropic, Snyk, Cisco, or any other security vendor mentioned in this document.

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Server facts

Tools

Questions

How do I install MCP Security Guard?

Does MCP Security Guard need an API key?

What transport does MCP Security Guard use?

When was MCP Security Guard last checked?

Documentation

MCP Security Guard

🚀 Quick Install

Cursor

Claude Code

Via Plugin (recommended)

Via CLI

Claude Desktop

VS Code

Command Line

📋 Table of Contents

Why MCP Security Guard?

How It Compares

Use Cases

1. Individual Developers

2. Pull Request CI Checks

3. Teams and Enterprises

What It Checks

OWASP MCP Top 10 Coverage

Quick Demo (1 Minute)

Tools

CI / GitHub Action

Interactive Dashboard

Runtime Hooks

Team Plan (paid, opt-in)

Benchmark Results

Development

Contributing

Security & Privacy

License

Limitations

About the Author

⭐ Support This Project