The Model Context Protocol (MCP) standardizes how AI applications connect to external tools, creating new trust boundaries and security risks via its core primitives.
The OWASP MCP Top 10 provides a catalog of the most critical security risks for MCP deployments, from prompt injection to supply chain vulnerabilities.
Indirect prompt injection allows attackers to execute malicious instructions, while insecure tool execution lets them pass arbitrary parameters to backend systems.
Prevent data exfiltration, insufficient authentication, broken object-level authorization, and sensitive data exposure by implementing robust access controls and secret scanning.
Defend against server-side request forgery, insecure deserialization, logging failures, and supply chain vulnerabilities through validation, monitoring, and dependency management.
Use the STRIDE framework to identify MCP-specific threats and implement a multi-layered security stack with mTLS, OAuth, and role-based access control.
Enforce strict JSON schemas for all parameters and leverage a suite of tools for static analysis, dynamic testing, and runtime monitoring to secure MCP deployments.
Implement a three-zone reference architecture and integrate security practices like code scanning and fuzzing throughout the entire development lifecycle.
Apply a practical audit checklist covering authentication, authorization, and data integrity, and learn from a real-world supply chain attack scenario involving a trojanized package.
Key principles for securing MCP include making authentication non-negotiable, prioritizing prompt injection defense, and applying a defense-in-depth strategy.
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.