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Rule Reference

SEC738lintai-ai-securitythreat-reviewsecuritystablejsonwarn

MCP config: environment dump exfiltration

MCP configuration command dumps and exfiltrates environment variables or shell state

Public lane
threat-review
Category
security
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

Explicit malicious, secret-bearing, or spyware-like review.

How to read this category

Strong exploit, secret, or unsafe-execution signal.

Activation Model

Preset Activation

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

threat-reviewsidecar lane
mcpsurface preset

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable

Graduation rationale

Checks committed MCP launch paths for explicit environment or shell-state enumeration commands combined with remote transfer behavior.

Deterministic signal basis

JsonSignals command-plus-args analysis over ArtifactKind::McpConfig for explicit environment enumeration primitives such as `printenv`, `env` used as a dump, `export -p`, `declare -xp`, or `compgen -v`, combined with remote sinks such as `curl`, `wget`, `scp`, `sftp`, `rsync`, `nc`, `aws s3 cp`, `gsutil cp`, `rclone copy`, or HTTP(S) endpoints.

Malicious corpus
mcp-command-env-dump-exfilmcp-command-env-dump-cloud-exfil
Benign corpus
mcp-safe-basic
structured evidence required remediation reviewed
Canonical note

Structural stable rule positioned as an explicit threat-review control: high-signal malicious, credential-bearing, or spyware-like behavior that stays opt-in rather than shaping the quiet default.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC301MCP config: shell trampolineMCP configuration shells out through sh -c or bash -cthreat-reviewsecurityjson
SEC305Config: hardcoded auth materialConfiguration embeds static authentication material in a connection or auth valuethreat-reviewsecurityjson
SEC309Config: literal secrets in configConfiguration commits literal secret material in env, auth, or header valuesthreat-reviewsecurityjson
SEC310Config: metadata or private-network hostConfiguration endpoint targets a metadata or private-network host literalthreat-reviewsecurityjson
SEC338MCP config: sensitive host bind mountMCP configuration launches Docker with a bind mount of sensitive host materialthreat-reviewsecurityjson
SEC339MCP config: privileged Docker flagsMCP configuration launches Docker with a host-escape or privileged runtime flagthreat-reviewsecurityjson

Why It Matters ​

Dumping environment variables and sending them to a remote destination is high-confidence credential theft behavior.

What Triggers ​

SEC738 matches MCP commands that invoke explicit environment enumeration primitives such as printenv, env used as a dump, export -p, declare -xp, or compgen -v, and also transmit data to remote sinks such as curl, wget, scp, rsync, nc, or HTTP(S) endpoints.

False Positives ​

Shared committed MCP launch paths should not dump and transmit environment state. Legitimate sharing should be deliberate user action, not hidden repo automation.

Remediation ​

Remove environment dumping and remote transfer behavior from the committed MCP launch path and keep shell state local unless the user explicitly chooses to share it.