How are you actually vetting MCP servers before you install them?

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mcp-servers security tool-poisoning rce vulnerability open-source

Summary

A discussion about the lack of vetting for MCP servers before installation, highlighting a study that found 5.5% tool-poisoned and 14.4% with known bugs, plus a systemic RCE in the MCP SDK.

Genuine question, because I went down a rabbit hole this week and it spooked me. When you install an MCP server, it gets access to your tools, filesystem, and usually your API keys — but there's no real step where you check what it does first. And the security picture keeps getting worse: - A study of 1,899 open-source MCP servers found 5.5% tool-poisoned, 14.4% with known bug patterns. - OX Security just disclosed a systemic RCE in the MCP SDK affecting thousands of servers. - Tool poisoning hides in the text of tool descriptions — the part the model reads — so a normal code scan misses it entirely. So how are you all handling this today? Just reading the README and trusting it? Pinning versions? Something smarter?
Original Article

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