This article introduces the Model Context Protocol (MCP), a relatively new standard introduced by Anthropic to facilitate integration between Large Language Models (LLMs) and corporate data. As these servers become more common and are often publicly exposed, they represent a significant new attack surface for security researchers. The author highlights the challenges of testing MCP servers, which primarily utilize Server-Sent Events (SSE) or WebSockets, protocols that are traditionally difficult to handle within standard manual testing workflows.
To address these challenges, the author developed the MCP Attack Surface Detector (MCP-ASD) extension for Burp Suite. This tool automates the discovery, passive detection, and active enumeration of MCP servers, identifying key primitives such as Resources, Tools, and Prompts. By establishing an internal synchronous bridge, MCP-ASD allows testers to interact with these complex protocols using Burp's familiar Repeater and Intruder tools, effectively treating MCP endpoints like standard web APIs for more efficient exploitation and security assessment.
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