Authentication & Authorization

Bypassing authentication and authorization controls in MCP systems, enabling unauthorized access and privilege escalation.

Overview

Authentication and authorization attacks exploit weaknesses in identity verification and access control mechanisms to gain unauthorized access to MCP systems and resources.

Attack Techniques

Unauthenticated Access

MCP endpoints exposed without proper authentication mechanisms.

Broken Authentication

Flawed authentication implementations allowing unauthorized access.

Authorization Bypass

Circumvention of access controls to perform unauthorized actions.

Auth Bypass & Rogue Server Registration

Unauthorized server registration and unverified API usage.

Identity Subversion

Flaws allowing attackers to assume other identities or escalate privileges.

Session Management Issues

Problems with session handling, including session hijacking and fixation.

Privilege Escalation

Gaining higher-level permissions than originally granted.

Audit Bypass

Lack of proper logging for delegated calls and missing audit trails.

Impact Assessment

  • Severity: Medium to Critical
  • Likelihood: Medium to High
  • Detection Difficulty: Medium

Common Indicators

  • Unauthenticated access attempts
  • Unusual authentication patterns
  • Privilege escalation attempts
  • Session anomalies
  • Authorization bypass attempts

General Mitigation Strategies

  1. Strong Authentication: Implement robust authentication mechanisms
  2. Access Controls: Deploy proper authorization systems
  3. Session Security: Secure session management
  4. Audit Logging: Comprehensive authentication and authorization logging
  5. Identity Verification: Verify user and system identities

Detection Methods

  • Authentication monitoring
  • Authorization tracking
  • Session analysis
  • Identity verification

This category contains 8 distinct attack techniques focused on authentication and authorization vulnerabilities in MCP systems.

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