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Rule Reference

SEC738lintai-ai-securitystablejsonwarn

MCP config: environment dump exfiltration

MCP configuration command dumps and exfiltrates environment variables or shell state

Provider
lintai-ai-security
Surface
json
Scope
per_file
Tier
stable
Severity
warn
Confidence
high
Detection
structural
Remediation
message_only

Activation Model

Preset Membership

This rule is part of the builtin activation graph through these preset memberships.

basemembership
mcpmembership

Lifecycle

Stable Lifecycle Contract

State

stable_gated

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 intended as a high-precision check with deterministic evidence.

Nearby Signals

Related Rules

SEC301MCP config: shell trampolineMCP configuration shells out through sh -c or bash -cjsonstable
SEC302Config: insecure HTTP endpointConfiguration contains an insecure http:// endpointjsonstable
SEC303MCP config: credential env passthroughMCP configuration passes through credential environment variablesjsonstable
SEC304Config: TLS verification disabledConfiguration disables TLS or certificate verificationjsonstable
SEC305Config: hardcoded auth materialConfiguration embeds static authentication material in a connection or auth valuejsonstable
SEC309Config: literal secrets in configConfiguration commits literal secret material in env, auth, or header valuesjsonstable

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.