OWASP ZAP MCP Server

dotnet-zap-mcp

MCP (Model Context Protocol) server for OWASP ZAP. Enables AI agents (Claude, GitHub Copilot, etc.) to drive ZAP vulnerability scanning via MCP.

Features

• 45 MCP tools for controlling OWASP ZAP (scanning, alerts, spider, ajax spider, context, authentication, reports, etc.)
• Built-in Docker Compose management (start/stop ZAP with a single tool call)
• Zero-config setup: auto-generates API keys and extracts Docker assets
• Works with any MCP-compatible client (Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.)

Installation

dotnet tool install -g dotnet-zap-mcp

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK
• Docker (Docker Engine or Docker Desktop) with docker compose support (for built-in ZAP container management)

Configuration

Zero-config (recommended)

No configuration needed. The agent calls DockerComposeUp which automatically:

1. Extracts Docker assets to ~/.zap-mcp/docker/
2. Generates a random API key
3. Starts the ZAP container on localhost:8090
4. Waits for ZAP to become healthy

Data persistence

The ZAP container uses two Docker named volumes:

On the first launch, the template config.xml is copied into zap-home. On subsequent launches, only the API key is updated — any changes made through ZAP (contexts, authentication settings, scan policies, etc.) are preserved.

The zap-data volume contains:

• reports/ — generated scan reports
• sessions/ — saved ZAP sessions
• contexts/ — exported context files

Claude Desktop / Claude Code

Add to your MCP configuration:

{

"mcpServers": { "zap": { "command": "zap-mcp" } } }

VS Code (Copilot)

Add to .vscode/mcp.json:

{

"servers": { "zap": { "command": "zap-mcp" } } }

With existing ZAP instance

If you already have a ZAP instance running, pass connection details via environment variables:

{

"mcpServers": { "zap": { "command": "zap-mcp", "env": { "ZAP_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8090", "ZAP_API_KEY": "your-api-key" } } } }

Available Tools

Docker Management

ZAP Core

Spider

Active Scan

Passive Scan

Alerts

Reports

Context Management

Authentication

Users

Forced User

Ajax Spider

Typical Workflow

1. Agent calls DockerComposeUp to start ZAP
2. Configure browser/Playwright to use ZAP as proxy (http://127.0.0.1:8090)
3. Browse the target application through the proxy
4. Agent calls StartSpider to crawl the application, then GetSpiderStatus to monitor progress
5. Agent calls GetPassiveScanStatus to wait for passive scan completion
6. Agent calls StartActiveScan on key pages, then GetActiveScanStatus to monitor progress
7. Agent calls GetAlertsSummary and GetAlerts to retrieve vulnerability findings
8. Agent calls GetHtmlReport or GetJsonReport to generate a scan report
9. Agent calls DockerComposeDown when done

Note: ZAP settings (contexts, authentication, scan policies) are persisted in the zap-home Docker volume. You can stop and restart the container without losing configuration.

Try It Out (with the included vulnerable app)

This repository includes an intentionally vulnerable web application for trying out ZAP scanning. The app contains common vulnerabilities (XSS, SQL Injection, CSRF, Open Redirect) so ZAP can detect real findings.

Setup

# Start ZAP and the vulnerable target app

docker compose -f tests/docker/docker-compose.test.yml up -d --build

Wait until both containers are healthy

docker compose -f tests/docker/docker-compose.test.yml ps

Then configure your MCP client to connect to this ZAP instance:

{

"mcpServers": { "zap": { "command": "zap-mcp", "env": { "ZAP_BASE_URL": "http://localhost:8090", "ZAP_API_KEY": "test-api-key-for-ci" } } } }

The vulnerable app is accessible at http://target from within the Docker network (used by ZAP), and at http://localhost:8080 from your host machine.

Example 1: Quick Scan

Prompt to agent:

Scan http://target for vulnerabilities. Run a spider crawl, wait for the passive scan to finish, then show me the alert summary and generate an HTML report.

Expected tool flow:

GetVersion          → Verify ZAP connectivity

StartSpider → url: "http://target" GetSpiderStatus → Poll until 100% GetPassiveScanStatus → Poll until 0 records remaining GetAlertsSummary → baseUrl: "http://target" GetAlerts → baseUrl: "http://target" GetHtmlReport → Generate report

ZAP will discover pages like /search, /login, /users, /about, /contact, and the passive scan will report issues such as missing security headers and CSRF vulnerabilities.

Example 2: Authenticated Scan

The /admin page requires login (username: admin, password: password). An authenticated scan lets ZAP access protected pages.

Prompt to agent:

Set up an authenticated scan for http://target. The login form is at /login with fields "username" and "password" (credentials: admin / password). The logged-in indicator is "Welcome, admin". After configuring authentication, spider the site as the authenticated user and run an active scan.

Expected tool flow:

CreateContext                   → contextName: "target-auth"

IncludeInContext → regex: "http://target.*" SetAuthenticationMethod → contextId, authMethodName: "formBasedAuthentication", authMethodConfigParams: "loginUrl=http://target/login&loginRequestData=username%3D%7B%25username%25%7D%26password%3D%7B%25password%25%7D" SetLoggedInIndicator → loggedInIndicatorRegex: "Welcome, admin" CreateUser → contextId, name: "admin" SetAuthenticationCredentials → contextId, userId, authCredentialsConfigParams: "username=admin&password=password" SetUserEnabled → contextId, userId, enabled: true SetForcedUser → contextId, userId SetForcedUserModeEnabled → enabled: true StartSpider → url: "http://target", contextName: "target-auth" GetSpiderStatus → Poll until 100% GetPassiveScanStatus → Poll until 0 records remaining StartActiveScan → url: "http://target" GetActiveScanStatus → Poll until 100% GetAlertsSummary → baseUrl: "http://target" GetAlerts → baseUrl: "http://target" SetForcedUserModeEnabled → enabled: false

With authentication configured, ZAP can access /admin and test for vulnerabilities behind the login.

Exa