AI Agent Abuse: Local AI CLI Tools & MCP (Claude/Gemini/Warp)

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Muhtasari

Local AI command-line interfaces (AI CLIs) such as Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Warp and similar tools often ship with powerful built‑ins: filesystem read/write, shell execution and outbound network access. Many act as MCP clients (Model Context Protocol), letting the model call external tools over STDIO or HTTP. Because the LLM plans tool-chains non‑deterministically, identical prompts can lead to different process, file and network behaviours across runs and hosts.

Mambo muhimu yanayoonekana katika AI CLIs za kawaida:

  • Kwa kawaida zimetekelezwa kwa Node/TypeScript na wrapper nyembamba inayozindua model na kufunua tools.
  • Njia mbalimbali: interactive chat, plan/execute, na single‑prompt run.
  • MCP client support kwa STDIO na HTTP transports, ikiruhusu upanuzi wa uwezo wa ndani na wa mbali.

Athari za matumizi mabaya: Prompt moja inaweza kuorodhesha na ku-exfiltrate credentials, kubadilisha faili za ndani, na kwa kimya kueneza uwezo kwa kuungana na remote MCP servers (kukosekana kwa uonekano ikiwa servers hizo ni za third‑party).

Playbook ya Adui – Orodhesho la Siri Zinazoongozwa na Prompt

Weka jukumu kwa agenti kuchambua haraka na kuandaa credentials/siri kwa ajili ya exfiltrate huku ukiendelea kuwa kimya:

  • Wigo: orodhesha recursively chini ya $HOME na application/wallet dirs; epuka noisy/pseudo paths (/proc, /sys, /dev).
  • Utendaji/Usiri: weka kizuizi kwa kina cha recursion; epuka sudo/priv‑escalation; fupisha matokeo.
  • Malengo: ~/.ssh, ~/.aws, cloud CLI creds, .env, *.key, id_rsa, keystore.json, browser storage (LocalStorage/IndexedDB profiles), crypto‑wallet data.
  • Matokeo: andika orodha fupi kwenye /tmp/inventory.txt; ikiwa faili ipo, tengeneza backup yenye timestamp kabla ya kuandika tena.

Mfano wa prompt ya operator kwa AI CLI:

You can read/write local files and run shell commands.
Recursively scan my $HOME and common app/wallet dirs to find potential secrets.
Skip /proc, /sys, /dev; do not use sudo; limit recursion depth to 3.
Match files/dirs like: id_rsa, *.key, keystore.json, .env, ~/.ssh, ~/.aws,
Chrome/Firefox/Brave profile storage (LocalStorage/IndexedDB) and any cloud creds.
Summarize full paths you find into /tmp/inventory.txt.
If /tmp/inventory.txt already exists, back it up to /tmp/inventory.txt.bak-<epoch> first.
Return a short summary only; no file contents.

Capability Extension via MCP (STDIO and HTTP)

AI CLIs mara nyingi hufanya kazi kama MCP clients ili kufikia zana za ziada:

  • STDIO transport (local tools): client hutengeneza mnyororo wa msaada kuendesha tool server. Mfululizo wa kawaida: node → <ai-cli> → uv → python → file_write. Mfano uliotambuliwa: uv run --with fastmcp fastmcp run ./server.py ambayo inaanzisha python3.13 na inafanya shughuli za faili za ndani kwa niaba ya agent.
  • HTTP transport (remote tools): client huanzisha outbound TCP (mfano, port 8000) kwenda remote MCP server, ambayo inatekeleza kitendo kilichotakiwa (mfano, write /home/user/demo_http). Kwenye endpoint utaona tu shughuli za mtandao za client; kushughulikia faili upande wa server hufanyika off‑host.

Notes:

  • MCP tools zinaelezewa kwa model na zinaweza kuchaguliwa kiotomatiki wakati wa planning. Tabia hutofautiana kati ya runs.
  • Remote MCP servers zinaongeza blast radius na kupunguza uonekanaji upande wa host.

Local Artifacts and Logs (Forensics)

  • Gemini CLI session logs: ~/.gemini/tmp/<uuid>/logs.json
  • Fields commonly seen: sessionId, type, message, timestamp.
  • Example message: “@.bashrc what is in this file?” (nia ya mtumiaji/agent iliyorekodiwa).
  • Claude Code history: ~/.claude/history.jsonl
  • JSONL entries with fields like display, timestamp, project.

Pentesting Remote MCP Servers

Remote MCP servers hutoa JSON‑RPC 2.0 API inayoweka mbele uwezo unaolenga LLM (Prompts, Resources, Tools). Zinachukua dosari za kawaida za web API huku zikiongeza async transports (SSE/streamable HTTP) na semantics za kila session.

Key actors

  • Host: the LLM/agent frontend (Claude Desktop, Cursor, etc.).
  • Client: per‑server connector used by the Host (one client per server).
  • Server: the MCP server (local or remote) exposing Prompts/Resources/Tools.

AuthN/AuthZ

  • OAuth2 ni ya kawaida: an IdP authenticates, MCP server inafanya kazi kama resource server.
  • After OAuth, the server issues an authentication token used on subsequent MCP requests. This is distinct from Mcp-Session-Id which identifies a connection/session after initialize.

Transports

  • Local: JSON‑RPC over STDIN/STDOUT.
  • Remote: Server‑Sent Events (SSE, still widely deployed) and streamable HTTP.

A) Session initialization

  • Pata OAuth token ikiwa inahitajika (Authorization: Bearer …).
  • Anza session na endesha MCP handshake:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":0,"method":"initialize","params":{"capabilities":{}}}
  • Hifadhi Mcp-Session-Id iliyorejeshwa na uiingize kwenye maombi yajayo kulingana na kanuni za usafirishaji.

B) Orodhesha uwezo

  • Zana
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":10,"method":"tools/list"}
  • Rasilimali
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"resources/list"}
  • Maelekezo
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":20,"method":"prompts/list"}

C) Ukaguzi wa uwezekano wa kutumia udhaifu

  • Rasilimali → LFI/SSRF
  • Seva inapaswa kuruhusu tu resources/read kwa URIs ilizotangaza katika resources/list. Jaribu URIs nje ya seti ili kuchunguza utekelezaji dhaifu:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"resources/read","params":{"uri":"file:///etc/passwd"}}

{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"resources/read","params":{"uri":"http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/"}}
  • Mafanikio yanaonyesha LFI/SSRF na uwezekano wa internal pivoting.
  • Rasilimali → IDOR (multi‑tenant)
  • Ikiwa server ni multi‑tenant, jaribu kusoma URI ya rasilimali ya mtumiaji mwingine moja kwa moja; ukosefu wa per‑user checks leak cross‑tenant data.
  • Vyombo → Code execution and dangerous sinks
  • Orodhesha tool schemas na fuzz parameters ambazo huathiri command lines, subprocess calls, templating, deserializers, au file/network I/O:
{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":11,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"TOOL_NAME","arguments":{"query":"; id"}}}
  • Tafuta error echoes/stack traces katika matokeo ili kuboresha payloads. Ujaribu huru umebaini widespread command‑injection na dosari zinazohusiana katika zana za MCP.
  • Prompts → Injection preconditions
  • Prompts huvumbua hasa metadata; prompt injection ni muhimu tu ikiwa unaweza kuharibu prompt parameters (mf., kupitia compromised resources au client bugs).

D) Vifaa vya interception na fuzzing

  • MCP Inspector (Anthropic): Web UI/CLI supporting STDIO, SSE and streamable HTTP with OAuth. Inafaa kwa recon ya haraka na invocations za zana kwa mkono.
  • HTTP–MCP Bridge (NCC Group): Bridges MCP SSE to HTTP/1.1 ili uweze kutumia Burp/Caido.
  • Anzisha bridge uielekeze kwenye target MCP server (SSE transport).
  • Fanya kwa mkono handshake ya initialize ili upate Mcp-Session-Id halali (kulingana na README).
  • Proxy ujumbe za JSON‑RPC kama tools/list, resources/list, resources/read, na tools/call kupitia Repeater/Intruder kwa replay na fuzzing.

Mpango wa mtihani wa haraka

  • Authenticate (OAuth if present) → run initialize → enumerate (tools/list, resources/list, prompts/list) → validate resource URI allow‑list and per‑user authorization → fuzz tool inputs at likely code‑execution and I/O sinks.

Mambo muhimu kuhusu athari

  • Ukosefu wa utekelezaji wa resource URI → LFI/SSRF, internal discovery and data theft.
  • Ukosefu wa ukaguzi kwa per‑user → IDOR na exposure ya cross‑tenant.
  • Implementations za zana zisizo salama → command injection → server‑side RCE na data exfiltration.

References

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