The MCP community is celebrating OAuth as the long-awaited security fix, but a closer look reveals alarming gaps that could make applications even more vulnerable to attacks and data breaches.
Strategic Analysis
On the surface, requiring OAuth for client authentication seems like a win for MCP security. In practice, however, it punts the real security challenges further down the road. Clients can now easily connect to MCP servers, but those servers still rely on insecure practices like plaintext API keys to access user data from tools like Gmail and Slack.
What’s more, by design MCP separates tool capabilities from their potentially risky access rights. This makes it easy for malicious actors to create tool descriptions that seem harmless but actually contain hidden, privileged instructions. An app may unknowingly give an MCP server sweeping permissions to read emails or post to company channels.
The core MCP vulnerability remains: servers act as unconstrained intermediaries between clients and sensitive user data sources. The OAuth update does little to change this open risk window of privilege escalation and supply chain attacks.
MCP’s decentralized, composable architecture was intended to democratize AI capabilities. But in trying to be everything to everyone, it creates unmanageable security complexities that will persistently undermine trust in real-world deployments. The industry rushed to embrace the MCP vision without fully vetting its implications.
Business Implications
For developers, MCP’s half-solution on authentication creates more work to lock down app security on top of the protocol’s requirements. They must stay hyper-vigilant, constantly auditing not just MCP servers but entire supply chains of AI tools and models for hidden risks.
For enterprise leaders, MCP highlights the challenges of adopting decentralized systems where trust boundaries keep shifting. Using MCP means placing bigger bets on securing complex, evolving supply chains over which they have limited visibility and control.
Future Outlook
Unless MCP’s security model fundamentally evolves, its widespread enterprise adoption will stall due to the untenable risks of its current authentication and privilege model. Customers will gravitate toward more centralized and curated AI solutions that can streamline security responsibilities.
Over time, MCP may bifurcate into open Internet instances accepting anonymous clients, and enterprise distributions with hardened authentication flows and rigorous supply chain controls. But solving MCP’s core security gaps will require rebuilding its foundation on different trust assumptions.
Sources & Further Reading
- New MCP update just dropped - here’s what the OAuth stuff actually does - r/mcp
- MCP Security is still Broken - r/mcp
This analysis was generated with AI assistance and reviewed by UnlockMCP’s editorial team.