OWASP Secure MCP Server Development Guide
Practical guide for secure MCP server development covering architecture, tool design, data validation, prompt injection controls, auth, deployment, and governance. Published Feb 2026.
What it does
OWASP GenAI Security Project publication (v1.0, Feb 2026) providing best practices for designing and implementing secure MCP servers. Covers 8 domains: Secure Architecture (local vs remote, session isolation), Safe Tool Design (cryptographic manifests, onboarding), Data Validation, Prompt Injection Controls (HITL, LLM-as-Judge), Authentication & Authorization (OAuth 2.1, token delegation), Secure Deployment, Governance, and Continuous Validation. Includes a minimum bar security checklist.
Security relevance
Addresses MCP-specific attack surface: tool poisoning, rug pulls (dynamic tool instability), code injection, credential leakage, excessive permissions, and insufficient isolation. Prescribes OAuth 2.1/OIDC, short-lived tokens, centralised policy enforcement, and containerised hardened deployment.
When to use it
Reference when building, deploying, or auditing MCP server implementations. Use the minimum bar checklist for MCP security reviews.
OWASP coverage
Risks addressed — mapped to both OWASP Top 10 standards. 3 in LLM, 4 in Agentic.
The raw record
What Yuntona stores. Single source of truth — fork it on GitHub.
name: OWASP Secure MCP Server Development Guide slug: owasp-secure-mcp-server-development-guide type: Mixed category: Education & Research url: https://genai.owasp.org reviewed: 2026-04 added: 2026-04 updated: 2026-04 risks: llm: [LLM01, LLM02, LLM07] asi: [ASI01, ASI02, ASI04, ASI05] complexity: Plug & Play pricing: — audience: AppSec · Platform lifecycle: [build] tags: [Architecture, Authentication, Free, Guide, MCP, OWASP]