ThreatByte-MCP

ThreatByte-MCP is a deliberately vulnerable, MCP-based case management web app. It mirrors a realistic SOC analyst workflow with a server-rendered UI and a real MCP server. The MCP tools are intentionally vulnerable for training and demonstration.

[!NOTE] For educational use in controlled environments only.

Features

• Safe web authentication (signup/login/logout)
• Case management UI (create/list/view cases)
• Notes and attachments tied to cases
• Indicator search and agent workflows via MCP tools
• Agent customization with schema-based tool registry

MCP Server (SDK, JSON-RPC)

ThreatByte-MCP is a split architecture:

• SOC Web App (client/UI) runs on port 5001.
• MCP Server (tools + agent) runs on port 5002 using the official MCP Python SDK (FastMCP).

The MCP server exposes JSON-RPC at POST http://localhost:5002/mcp (Streamable HTTP). The web UI calls the MCP server through a server-side proxy to keep auth consistent with the SOC session; the proxy streams agent responses to the browser via SSE. A sample mcp.json manifest is included at the repo root. All direct MCP calls must include MCP-Protocol-Version: 2025-11-25 and Accept: application/json, text/event-stream.

Architecture (simplified):

          Browser
             |
             v
    +------------------+        X-TBMCP-Token + X-TBMCP-User        +-------------------+
    |  SOC Web App     |  ---------------------------------------> |     MCP Server     |
    |  (Flask, :5001)  |           /mcp-proxy (server-side)         |  (FastMCP, :5002)  |
    +------------------+                                            +-------------------+
             |                                                                  |
             v                                                                  v
         SQLite DB                                                      Tool registry
                                                                       Agent + tool handlers

Architecture (detailed):

Mode A (Web UI as HTTP MCP client)
  Browser (Analyst)
    |
    v
  SOC Web App (Flask, :5001)
    - Auth session (cookie)
    - Dashboards, cases, notes, files UI
    - POST /mcp-proxy forwards JSON-RPC
    - Injects X-TBMCP-Token + X-TBMCP-User to the MCP server
    |
    +--> SQLite DB (users/cases/notes/files/indicators)
    +--> Uploads (app/uploads)
    |
    v
  MCP Server (FastMCP, :5002)
    - /mcp JSON-RPC (Streamable HTTP)
    - Tool registry (mcp_tools)
    - Agent runtime + tool handlers
    - Persistence: agent_contexts, agent_logs, mcp_audit_logs

Mode B (Local agent/IDE as stdio MCP client)
  Local Agent / IDE (e.g., Claude Desktop) spawns:
    python run_mcp_server.py --stdio
  and communicates via stdin/stdout JSON-RPC (stdio transport).

Diagram: ThreatByte-MCP architecture diagram

MCP Auth Between Web App and MCP Server

The web app proxies MCP calls with these headers:

• X-TBMCP-Token: shared secret from TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN (configured on both servers).
• X-TBMCP-User: current user id from the authenticated SOC session.

Direct MCP calls require the same headers.

Supported tools:

• cases.create
• cases.list
• cases.list_all
• cases.get
• cases.rename
• cases.set_status
• cases.delete
• notes.create
• notes.list
• notes.update
• notes.delete
• files.upload (base64)
• files.list
• files.get (base64)
• files.read_path
• indicators.search
• agent.summarize_case
• agent.run_task
• tools.registry.list
• tools.builtin.list
• tools.registry.register
• tools.registry.delete

Vulnerability Themes (Training-Focused)

The following weaknesses are intentionally present for teaching:

• Broken object level authorization (cases/notes/files, list_all)
• Stored XSS (notes rendered as trusted HTML)
• SQL injection in indicator search
• Prompt injection in agent task runner
• Token mismanagement & secret exposure (hardcoded tokens in prompts, persisted contexts, full logs)
• Tool poisoning via schema-driven tool registry overrides (MCP03)
• Over-trusting client context (MCP header identity spoofing)
• Arbitrary file read via files.read_path
• Cross-user file overwrite (shared filename namespace)

Running Locally

cd ThreatByte-MCP
python -m venv venv_threatbyte_mcp
source venv_threatbyte_mcp/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
python db/create_db_tables.py
python run_mcp_server.py --http
python run.py

Open: http://localhost:5001

MCP Server: http://localhost:5002/mcp

HTTP vs stdio

This repository ships two MCP server transports:

• HTTP (Streamable HTTP): what the ThreatByte web app uses. The web app is an HTTP MCP client only, via the server-side /mcp-proxy forwarder.
• stdio: for external MCP clients (e.g., IDE/agent clients) that spawn the MCP server and communicate over stdin/stdout.

Examples:

# HTTP (required for the web app)
python run_mcp_server.py --http --host 127.0.0.1 --port 5002

# stdio (for MCP clients that support stdio transport; the web app will NOT work with this)
# In stdio mode there are no HTTP headers, so the server reads user context from env vars.
# Note: stdio mode runs the MCP server on AnyIO's Trio backend; ensure `trio>=0.28.0` is installed.
export TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN=tbmcp-mcp-token
export TBMCP_MCP_USER_ID=1
python run_mcp_server.py --stdio

Claude Desktop compatibility (tool names)

Some MCP clients (e.g., Claude Desktop) enforce strict tool name validation (^[a-zA-Z0-9_-]{1,64}$) and will reject dotted tool names like cases.create.

To run the MCP server in a Claude-compatible mode, set:

• TBMCP_TOOL_NAME_MODE=claude

This exposes tools as underscore names (e.g., cases_create, tools_registry_register, files_read_path) instead of dotted names.

For a complete walkthrough (Windows + WSL stdio), see Claude Desktop setup.

Running with Docker or Podman

The repository includes a Dockerfile and startup script that initialize the DB and run both services in one container:

• SOC Web App on :5001
• MCP Server on :5002

Build the image:

# Docker
docker build -t threatbyte-mcp .

# Podman
podman build -t threatbyte-mcp .

Run the container:

# Docker
docker run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 threatbyte-mcp

# Podman
podman run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 threatbyte-mcp

Run with optional environment variables:

# Docker
docker run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 \
  -e TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN=tbmcp-mcp-token \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_api_key \
  -e TBMCP_OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini \
  threatbyte-mcp

# Podman
podman run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 \
  -e TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN=tbmcp-mcp-token \
  -e OPENAI_API_KEY=your_api_key \
  -e TBMCP_OPENAI_MODEL=gpt-4o-mini \
  threatbyte-mcp

Persist SQLite data between runs (optional):

# Docker
docker run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 \
  -v "$(pwd)/db:/app/db" \
  -v "$(pwd)/app/uploads:/app/app/uploads" \
  threatbyte-mcp

# Podman
podman run --rm -p 5001:5001 -p 5002:5002 \
  -v "$(pwd)/db:/app/db:Z" \
  -v "$(pwd)/app/uploads:/app/app/uploads:Z" \
  threatbyte-mcp

Populate Sample Data

python db/populate_db.py --users 8 --cases 20 --notes 40 --files 20

This creates random users, cases, notes, and file artifacts. All user passwords are Password123!.

LLM Integration (Required for Agent Responses)

The agent task endpoint requires a real LLM. Without an API key, the agent returns an error indicating it is unavailable.

Environment variables:

• TBMCP_OPENAI_API_KEY or OPENAI_API_KEY
• TBMCP_OPENAI_MODEL (default: gpt-4o-mini)

Keep API keys server-side only and never expose them in the browser.

MCP Server Configuration

The SOC web app proxies MCP calls to the MCP server using a shared token.

Environment variables:

• TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_URL (default: http://localhost:5002/mcp)
• TBMCP_MCP_SERVER_TOKEN (shared secret between the SOC app and MCP server)

Notes

• The UI uses server-rendered templates.
• MCP tools are exposed under http://localhost:5002/mcp (JSON-RPC). The UI calls them through /mcp-proxy.
• Useful UI pages for training:
  • My Cases (all cases owned by the logged-in user)
  • MCP Audit Logs (server-side audit trail of MCP tool calls from HTTP + stdio clients)
  • Agent Logs (internal agent runner traces; populated by agent.run_task)
• This app is intentionally insecure. Do not deploy it to the public internet.