MCP Scanner

A Python tool for scanning MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers and tools for potential security findings. The MCP Scanner combines Cisco AI Defense inspect API, YARA rules and LLM-based analysis to detect malicious MCP tools.

Overview

The MCP Scanner provides a comprehensive solution for scanning MCP servers and tools for security findings. It leverages three powerful scanning engines (Yara, LLM-based analysis, Cisco AI Defense) that can be used together or independently.

The SDK is designed to be easy to use while providing powerful scanning capabilities, flexible authentication options, and customization.

Features

• Multiple Modes: Run scanner as a stand-alone CLI tool or REST API server
• Multi-Engine Security Analysis: Use all three scanning engines together or independently based on your needs.
• Vulnerable Packages Scanning: Scan Python dependencies for known vulnerabilities (CVE/PYSEC/GHSA) using pip-audit integration.
• Readiness Scanning: Zero-dependency static analysis for production readiness issues (timeouts, retries, error handling).
• Comprehensive Scanning: Scan MCP tools, prompts, resources, and server instructions for security findings
• Behavioural Code Scanning: Scan Source code of MCP servers for finding threats.
• VirusTotal Binary Scanning: Automatically detect malware in binary files (images, PDFs, executables, archives) bundled with MCP servers using VirusTotal hash lookups.
• PyPI Package Scanning: Download and scan PyPI packages inside a Docker sandbox with behavioral analysis.
• Behavioural Code Scanning: Scan Source code of MCP servers for detecting threats.
• Static/Offline Scanning: Scan pre-generated JSON files without live server connections - perfect for CI/CD pipelines and air-gapped environments
• Explicit Authentication Control: Fine-grained control over authentication with explicit Auth parameters.
• OAuth Support: Full OAuth authentication support for both SSE and streamable HTTP connections.
• Custom Endpoints: Configure the API endpoint to support any Cisco AI Defense environments.
• MCP Server Integration: Connect directly to MCP servers to scan tools, prompts, and resources with flexible authentication.
• Customizable YARA Rules: Add your own YARA rules to detect specific patterns.
• Comprehensive Reporting: Detailed reports on detected security findings.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv (Python package manager)
• A valid Cisco AI Defense API Key (optional)
• LLM Provider API Key (optional)
• VirusTotal API Key (optional, for binary file malware scanning)

Installing as a CLI tool

uv tool install --python 3.13 cisco-ai-mcp-scanner

Alternatively, you can install from source:

uv tool install --python 3.13 --from git+https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/mcp-scanner cisco-ai-mcp-scanner

Installing for local development

git clone https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/mcp-scanner
cd mcp-scanner
uv sync --python 3.13 

Install as a dependency in other projects

Add MCP Scanner as a dependency using uv. From your project root (initialize with uv if needed):

uv init --python 3.13 #if not already done
uv add cisco-ai-mcp-scanner
# then activate the virtual environment:
## macOS and Linux: source .venv/bin/activate
## Windows CMD: .venv\Scripts\activate
## Windows PWSH: .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
uv sync