{
 "public_id": "AIR-2025-0031",
 "incident_id": "2025-04-trailofbits-mcp-plaintext-credentials",
 "date_disclosed": "2025-04-30",
 "date_occurred": null,
 "title": "MCP servers and hosts store long-term third-party API keys in plaintext, world-readable files",
 "class": "research_demo",
 "attack_surface": "mcp_server",
 "initial_vector": "local_file_permissions",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "credential_storage"
 ],
 "target_product": "Official GitLab, Postgres and Google Maps MCP servers; Figma connector; Superargs; Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf",
 "target_vendor": "multiple",
 "autonomy_level": "copilot_with_approval",
 "impact_realized": false,
 "impact_type": [
  "credential_theft"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "Any machine running MCP hosts with default config file permissions",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI04",
   "ASI03"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "credential_storage",
   "mcp",
   "insecure_defaults"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": null,
 "defense_bypassed": null,
 "fix_shipped": null,
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://blog.trailofbits.com/2025/04/30/insecure-credential-storage-plagues-mcp/"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "On macOS, we found this file has world-readable permissions: `-rw-r--r--` permission set allows any process or user on the system to read the file's contents.",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "Author Keith Hoodlet. Fourth post in the MCP series.",
 "risk_category": "security_fraud",
 "risk_secondary": [],
 "risk_subcategory": "Credential & Secret Theft",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "ai_as_target",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "world-readable plaintext key storage in MCP hosts",
 "vector_family": "other",
 "vector_detail": "local_file_permissions",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "unknown"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI04",
 "agent_framework": "unknown",
 "model_provider": "multiple",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "external_researcher",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "credential_theft",
 "eai_domain": "access_control_and_permissions",
 "eai_secondary": [],
 "eai_reason": "subcategory: Credential & Secret Theft",
 "asi_curated": [
  "ASI04"
 ],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "curated_plus_rule",
 "asi_reason": "curated: ASI04 | added ASI03 (eai_category=credential_theft)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}