Security & Compliance

Threat Models Addressed

MCP-I is designed to mitigate the following threats:

• Impersonation — Ensures agents present signed delegation from a real user
• Scope Escalation — Prevents overbroad credential use
• Replay Attacks — Enforces revocation and expiration
• Agent Abuse — Logs all behavior for reputation and denial

Enforcement Points

Enforcement Points Diagram

This diagram shows how identity, credential, and delegation requests pass through the enforcement stack. Audit logs are generated at each step.

Security controls are enforced at several key layers:

Data Minimization

MCP-I uses scoped Verifiable Credentials to:

• Reduce exposure of PII or credentials
• Grant task-specific access (e.g., scope: ["read:email"])
• Enable selective disclosure (Level 3)

This helps meet GDPR principles of data proportionality.

Privacy Considerations

Tamper-Evidence

All credentials are:

• Digitally signed (e.g., Ed25519)
• Audit-logged (optionally hash-linked)
• Anchored (via Bitstring Status List or distributed ledger)

This makes unauthorized activity detectable and provable.

Regulatory Compliance

MCP-I is designed to align with key regulatory frameworks:

EU AI Act

MCP-I supports EU AI Act compliance through:

1. Transparency: Clear identity and delegation chains
2. Auditability: Comprehensive logging of agent actions
3. Human Oversight: Principal-controlled delegation
4. Risk Management: Conformance levels matching risk profiles

GDPR Considerations

MCP-I addresses GDPR requirements through:

1. Data Minimization: Using only necessary identity attributes
2. Purpose Limitation: Explicit scope specification
3. Storage Limitation: Credential expiration and revocation
4. Integrity and Confidentiality: Cryptographic protections

Financial Regulations

For implementations in financial contexts:

1. Know Your Customer (KYC): Agent identity verification
2. Anti-Money Laundering (AML): Delegation tracking and audit
3. SOX Compliance: Audit trail and delegation controls

Security Best Practices

Implementation Security

When implementing MCP-I:

1. Secure Development: Follow secure coding practices
2. Dependency Management: Regularly update dependencies
3. Security Testing: Conduct penetration testing and code reviews
4. Configuration Management: Securely manage and store configurations

Operational Security

For ongoing operations:

1. Monitoring: Implement comprehensive security monitoring
2. Incident Response: Develop and test incident response procedures
3. Patch Management: Promptly apply security updates
4. Secure Deployment: Use secure deployment practices

Transport Security

For network communications:

1. TLS: Use TLS 1.3 for all communications
2. Certificate Validation: Properly validate certificates
3. Strong Ciphers: Use strong cryptographic algorithms
4. Transport Credentials: Protect transport-level credentials

Authentication and Authorization

Principal Authentication

When a principal authenticates to issue delegations:

1. Strong Authentication: Use multi-factor authentication
2. Context-Aware Access: Consider location, device, and behavior
3. Session Management: Secure session handling and expiration
4. Consent Capture: Record explicit consent for delegations

Agent Authentication

When an agent presents credentials:

1. Cryptographic Challenge: Use challenge-response protocols
2. Credential Validation: Thoroughly verify all credentials
3. Context Validation: Check request context against constraints
4. Scope Enforcement: Strictly enforce delegated scopes

Implementation Example: Security Configuration

// Example security configuration for MCP-I implementation
const securityConfig = {
  keys: {
    storage: {
      type: "hsm", // Options: "software", "hardware-backed", "hsm", "tee"
      provider: "aws-kms", // Specific provider implementation
      protection: "aes-256-gcm", // Encryption for software storage
    },
    rotation: {
      schedule: "90d", // Rotate every 90 days
      emergency: true, // Support emergency rotation
    },
  },
  transport: {
    minTlsVersion: "TLS1.3",
    cipherSuites: ["TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384", "TLS_CHACHA20_POLY1305_SHA256"],
    certificateValidation: "strict",
  },
  verification: {
    nonceLength: 32, // bytes
    timestampTolerance: 60, // seconds
    cacheExpiry: {
      didDocuments: "1h",
      revocationStatus: "5m",
    },
  },
  audit: {
    integrity: "signed", // Options: "basic", "signed", "merkle"
    storage: "immutable-db", // Storage mechanism
    retention: "1y", // Retention period
  },
};

Security Assessment Framework

MCP-I provides a security assessment framework to evaluate implementations:

Security Assessment Criteria

1. Cryptographic Robustness: Strength of cryptographic algorithms and implementation
2. Key Management: Security of key storage, usage, and rotation
3. Authentication Mechanisms: Strength of identity verification
4. Authorization Controls: Effectiveness of delegation enforcement
5. Audit Coverage: Completeness and integrity of audit trails
6. Privacy Protection: Handling of personal and sensitive data
7. Integration Security: Security of interfaces with other systems
8. Operational Security: Security of day-to-day operations

Security Scoring

// Example security assessment scoring
function assessSecurityScore(implementation) {
  let score = 0;
  const maxScore = 100;

  // Cryptographic assessment
  score += assessCryptographicSecurity(implementation) * 0.2;

  // Key management assessment
  score += assessKeyManagement(implementation) * 0.25;

  // Authentication assessment
  score += assessAuthentication(implementation) * 0.15;

  // Authorization assessment
  score += assessAuthorization(implementation) * 0.15;

  // Audit assessment
  score += assessAudit(implementation) * 0.15;

  // Privacy assessment
  score += assessPrivacy(implementation) * 0.1;

  return {
    score: Math.round(score),
    maxScore: maxScore,
    rating: getSecurityRating(score),
    recommendations: generateRecommendations(implementation),
  };
}

Best Practices

• Rotate keys on compromise or scope change
• Use expiration windows under 30 days
• Cache status lists locally but refresh on retry
• Log all failed verification attempts
• Fail securely (deny access if VC can’t be validated)

Regulatory Alignment

MCP-I is built with compliance in mind:

MCP-I is designed to evolve with regulations, not against them.

Related Topics

• Audit Layer
• Reputation & Trust Signals