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Rule Reference

SEC575lintai-ai-securitygovernancehardeningstablejsonwarn

MCP config: Write unsafe path auto-approve

MCP configuration auto-approves `Write(...)` over an unsafe path through `autoApprove`

Public lane
governance
Category
hardening
Provider
lintai-ai-security
Scope
per-file
Surface
json
Tier
stable
Severity
warn
Confidence
high
Detection
structural
Remediation
message only
How to read this lane

Shared authority and workflow policy review.

How to read this category

Least-privilege, provenance, or operational hygiene signal.

Activation Model

Preset Activation

These presets explain where this rule appears in the product experience.

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable

Graduation rationale

Matches exact unsafe-path `Write(...)` auto-approval in MCP client config.

Deterministic signal basis

JsonSignals exact array-item predicate detection for `autoApprove` entries where `Write(...)` targets an absolute, home-relative, parent-traversing, or drive-qualified path.

Malicious corpus
mcp-autoapprove-unsafe-path-family
Benign corpus
mcp-autoapprove-unsafe-path-family-specific-safe
structured evidence required remediation reviewed
Canonical note

Structural stable rule intended as a high-precision check with deterministic evidence.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC575 / MCP-AUTOAPPROVE-WRITE-UNSAFE-PATH

SEC575 flags MCP configuration when autoApprove includes Write(...) with an absolute, home-relative, parent-traversing, or drive-qualified path.

Why It Matters

Unsafe Write(...) scopes allow broad mutation outside project-scoped expectations. Auto-approving them removes review from high-impact file changes.

Trigger Shape

  • the file is a detected MCP configuration surface
  • autoApprove is a string array
  • an entry matches Write(...)
  • the inner path is absolute, home-relative, parent-traversing, or drive-qualified

How To Fix

Replace unsafe Write(...) auto-approval with repository-scoped allowlists or remove it from shared auto-approval.