Protecting your MCP Server from AI Vulnerabilities with F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF JSON Schema Validation
This demo shows how a JSON schema can inform the BIG-IP how requests should be expected to come in. The F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF can mitigate MCP server vulnerabilities by sanitizing parameters in requests allowing them to pass through to the MCP server. This demo covers two vulnerabilities from OWASP MCP Top 10. For more info on the OWASP MCP Top 10 vulnerabilities, click here. MCP02: Privilege Escalation via Scope Creep Scope creep can occur intentionally for convenience or accidentally through configuration drift allowing an agent to gain broad or administrative privileges to our MCP Server. As MCP servers connect to multiple systems, scope increases can result in a high-impact attack surface. Due to the nature of AI agents, an over-privileged agent can make unlabeled changes, trigger deployments, or access sensitive data without human review. For more information on OWASP MCP02: Privilege Escalation via Scope Creep, click here. MCP03: Tool Poisoning Schema poisoning occurs when an adversary tampers with the contract or schema definitions that govern agent-to-tool interactions in an MCP ecosystem. Schemas define the shape, types, and semantics of requests and responses — effectively the “language” agents use to call tools. If an attacker can modify a schema (or its metadata) so that a benign-sounding operation maps to a destructive action, agents that trust and follow the schema may inadvertently execute dangerous commands. Schema attacks are a supply-chain style compromise: the attacker doesn’t exploit a code bug directly, they change the contract so legitimate agents behave incorrectly while passing superficial validation. For more information on OWASP MCP03: Tool Poisoning, click here. Mitigating MCP02 and MCP03 Enforcing JSON Schema validation at the BIG-IP can mitigate requests that may allow excessive privilege to resources on our MCP server. This method gives security admins more control over how their MCP server can be used. In this video, we will demonstrate how an attacker can exploit MCP02 and MCP03 to gain access to resources unintended for them. Subsequently, we use JSON Schema validation to inform the F5 BIG-IP Advanced WAF's security policy on how a security admin would intend those resources to be accessed. Check out the video below for a demonstration of how the F5 BIG-IP's JSON Schema validation can mitigate MCP 02 and MCP 03.
