Network-AI Unauthenticated Access to MCP HTTP Endpoint

The Jovancoding/Network-AI project is susceptible to a critical vulnerability due to missing authentication on the MCP HTTP endpoint. This flaw, present in version 5.1.2 and earlier (commit c344f2053eb0d49395988f803bf92f2a86b2a0d0), allows unauthenticated access to the orchestrator’s management tools. The default bind address of 0.0.0.0 exacerbates the issue, enabling any party with network reachability to enumerate and invoke privileged functions. This includes reading and mutating the live orchestrator configuration, listing registered agents, creating/revoking security tokens, and adjusting global budget ceilings, posing a significant risk to the system’s integrity and availability.

Attack Chain

1. The attacker gains network access to the Network-AI instance.
2. The attacker sends an HTTP GET request to /tools endpoint (e.g., http://localhost:13001/tools) to enumerate available tools.
3. The server responds with a list of available tools including config_get, config_set, agent_list, etc.
4. The attacker crafts a JSON-RPC tools/call request to the /mcp endpoint (e.g., http://localhost:13001/mcp) without any authentication headers.
5. The attacker specifies the desired tool name (config_get, config_set, agent_list, etc.) and arguments within the JSON-RPC request body.
6. The server processes the request and dispatches the call to the orchestrator’s tool registry without authentication.
7. The attacker can now read sensitive configuration data using config_get or modify the configuration using config_set.
8. The attacker can further enumerate agents or manipulate the system by using available tool calls like agent_list, agent_spawn, and agent_stop.

Impact

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to completely compromise the Network-AI orchestrator. Unauthenticated network access enables full enumeration and invocation of the orchestrator’s management functionality. An attacker can change runtime configuration (e.g., defaultTimeout, enableTracing), dispatch or stop agents, mutate the shared blackboard, mint or revoke security tokens, and adjust global budget ceilings. The default 0.0.0.0 bind increases the likelihood of accidental exposure on any host with a routable interface.

Recommendation

• Deploy the Sigma rule “Detect Unauthenticated Access to Network-AI MCP Endpoint” to identify suspicious requests to the /mcp endpoint without authentication (see rule below).
• Monitor web server logs for HTTP requests to /tools and /mcp endpoints originating from unexpected IP addresses, especially those outside the internal network.
• Apply remediation steps suggested by the vendor, including enforcing authentication on the /mcp endpoint and restricting the bind address to 127.0.0.1.
• Use the IOCs provided in this brief to identify potential exploitation attempts by blocking access to the identified URLs and IP addresses.