Vulnerability Exposure

Vulnerability Exposure MCP

An MCP server that checks public IPs, domains, CVEs and software versions for confirmed vulnerabilities and exposure. A CVE only counts as affecting a version when NVD's version ranges confirm it; everything else is listed for review, so related or vendor-wide CVEs are never reported as yours.

It's the MCP version of Vulnerability Exposure Analyzer. The app needs a Cohere key to run its own agent; this one doesn't need any LLM key, because the model in your MCP client calls the tools and writes the report.

It runs locally over stdio, so it works with clients that launch local MCP servers: Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Antigravity, Windsurf, VS Code, LM Studio and similar. Web-only clients such as ChatGPT on the web and claude.ai connectors only accept remote (HTTPS) servers; this server is not hosted, because a public deployment would need its own authentication to keep your API keys from being used by anyone.

Give it a public IP, a domain, a CVE ID (CVE-2026-111497), a product and version (PHP 8.3.10, OpenSSH 8.9p1 Ubuntu-3ubuntu0.6), or your project's lockfile or SBOM, and it pulls evidence from NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS, Exploit-DB, OSV.dev, Shodan, VirusTotal, AbuseIPDB, Spamhaus, GreyNoise, SANS ISC, the internet registries and certificate transparency logs.

Install

Requires Python 3.11+. Setup is three steps: install, optionally store your keys, connect your AI client.

The simplest way is uv, which runs the server straight from PyPI with nothing to set up:

uvx vulnerability-exposure-mcp keys status

Or install it with pip (pip install vulnerability-exposure-mcp) and use the vulnerability-exposure-mcp command the same way. To run from source instead, see From source below.

Free keys: Shodan, VirusTotal, AbuseIPDB, NVD (optional, raises the rate limit), GreyNoise (optional; GreyNoise only gives keys to accounts made with a work email, not Gmail or similar. Without one it allows a limited number of lookups, and SANS ISC covers the rest). CVE and software checks work with no keys at all. IP and domain checks also run without keys, using Shodan's free InternetDB, the internet registries, Spamhaus DROP and GreyNoise; the report then lists VirusTotal and AbuseIPDB as not checked.

Then ask: *"Run a security assessment of PHP 8.3.10"* or use the security_assessment prompt. Examples has more to try.

Store your keys securely

Keys can live in your operating system's credential store (Windows Credential Manager, macOS Keychain, or the Secret Service on Linux) instead of a config file. Run this in your own terminal; the key is typed into a hidden prompt and goes straight to the store:

uvx vulnerability-exposure-mcp keys set shodan

Do the same for virustotal, abuseipdb, nvd and greynoise as needed. keys status shows which are stored (never their values) and keys delete NAME removes one. With keys stored this way, leave the env block below empty. An environment variable, if set, takes precedence over a stored key.

Servers, Docker containers and other headless Linux systems usually have no credential store. There keys set says so, and keys go in the env block instead.

Connect a client

Pass keys through the client's env block, not the command line.

Claude Desktop

Download vulnerability-exposure-mcp- .mcpb from the latest release and open it: Claude Desktop installs it and asks for your (optional) keys in a form. Or add the JSON config below. From 1.1.0 each bundle has a signed build provenance attestation, so you can check it was built by this repository's release workflow: gh attestation verify vulnerability-exposure-mcp- .mcpb --repo MRFrazer25/Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP.

Claude Code

Store your keys first (see above), so none go on the command line, then run:

claude mcp add vulnerability-exposure -- uvx vulnerability-exposure-mcp

Start a new Claude Code session afterwards: MCP servers load when a session starts.

Or install it as a plugin, which asks for each (optional) key in a masked prompt and keeps it in your credential store:

/plugin marketplace add MRFrazer25/Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP

/plugin install vulnerability-exposure@vulnerability-exposure

Codex (CLI, IDE extension and ChatGPT desktop app)

Store your keys first (see above), so none go on the command line, then run:

codex mcp add vulnerability-exposure -- uvx vulnerability-exposure-mcp

Or add it to ~/.codex/config.toml, which all three share:

[mcp_servers.vulnerability-exposure]

command = "uvx" args = ["vulnerability-exposure-mcp"]

Antigravity CLI

Store your keys first (see above), then install the plugin straight from this repo:

agy plugin install https://github.com/MRFrazer25/Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP/tree/main/plugin

Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code, Claude Desktop and other JSON-configured clients

Add this to the client's MCP config (in Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config), then restart the client. With keys stored in the credential store, leave the env values empty or remove the block.

{

"mcpServers": { "vulnerability-exposure": { "command": "uvx", "args": ["vulnerability-exposure-mcp"], "env": { "SHODAN_API_KEY": "", "VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY": "", "ABUSEIPDB_API_KEY": "", "NVD_API_KEY": "", "GREYNOISE_API_KEY": "" } } } }

(VS Code uses "servers" instead of "mcpServers" in .vscode/mcp.json.)

Docker

Build the image once with docker build -t vulnerability-exposure-mcp ., then point the client at it. Containers have no credential store, so keys go in env; listing them as bare -e names passes their values through without putting them on the command line:

{

"mcpServers": { "vulnerability-exposure": { "command": "docker", "args": ["run", "-i", "--rm", "-e", "SHODAN_API_KEY", "-e", "VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY", "-e", "ABUSEIPDB_API_KEY", "-e", "NVD_API_KEY", "-e", "GREYNOISE_API_KEY", "vulnerability-exposure-mcp"], "env": { "SHODAN_API_KEY": "", "VIRUSTOTAL_API_KEY": "", "ABUSEIPDB_API_KEY": "", "NVD_API_KEY": "", "GREYNOISE_API_KEY": "" } } } }

From source

git clone https://github.com/MRFrazer25/Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP.git

cd Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP python -m venv .venv .venv/Scripts/python -m pip install -e . # macOS/Linux: .venv/bin/python

Then use .venv/Scripts/python -m vulnerability_exposure_mcp (on macOS or Linux, .venv/bin/python) wherever the steps above say uvx vulnerability-exposure-mcp, with the full path to that Python in client configs, for example "command": "C:/path/to/Vulnerability-Exposure-MCP/.venv/Scripts/python.exe", "args": ["-m", "vulnerability_exposure_mcp"].

It keeps everything that makes the original app's reports reliable:

• The same analyst rules as the app's system prompt. The server's instructions are a short summary, since clients cut long ones short; investigate_target returns the full rules and report format as analyst_guide.
• Baseline lookups run in code, so reputation and exposure checks never depend on the model remembering them.
• Analysis depth (Quick Scan, Standard, Comprehensive, Expert) sets the tool-call budget, per-service caps and how much detail each result keeps. The model can't override these limits.
• Key facts computed from the data, not the model, including the CISA KEV split into *confirmed for this target* and *related*, so the numbers are the same whichever model runs it.
• Fresher and more accurate than NVD alone: Ubuntu and Debian packages are checked against the distro's own fix data, so backported fixes count; recent CVEs NVD hasn't analysed are listed for review; and for packages such as Next.js, React and Django, GitHub advisories fill gaps before NVD has them. Each CVE carries its patch status and whether exploit code is published.
• One investigation per `investigation_id`: a random handle returned by investigate_target, so several chats sharing one server process never mix evidence.

How this differs

Most CVE servers search NVD by keyword or product and hand back every match, so a report on nginx 1.30.0 can list CVEs that were fixed years earlier. This one:

• Checks the exact version. A CVE is *confirmed* only when NVD's version ranges include that version, and for an Ubuntu or Debian package, CVEs the distro fixed by backport are ruled out. Keyword and product-level matches are listed separately as *related*.
• Sets aside what isn't the product's. Plugin CVEs (Jenkins plugins), other products that share the name (Nginx Proxy Manager, Grafana Alloy) and CVEs NVD confirms only on another OS (PHP on Windows, for a Linux build) are listed separately instead of being counted against it.
• Combines the context a fix decision needs. One call returns CISA KEV status and ransomware use, EPSS and whether it's rising, the minimum safe version (and how far your current major version gets), end-of-life status, published exploits and patch status, instead of the model stitching together separate lookups.
• Checks the report, not just the data. check_report flags a draft that cites a CVE, version or host name no tool returned, calls a related CVE confirmed, swaps an affected and an unaffected version, or gets a fix version, count, KEV, port, reputati