Model Context Protocol (MCP): Landscape, Security Threats, and Future Research Directions

This paper provides the first systematic study of MCP architecture, its server lifecycle (creation, operation, update), and associated security/privacy risks across 16 threat scenarios mapped to 4 attacker types. It compares MCP against legacy approaches (manual API wiring, plugins, agent frameworks), demonstrating MCP's advantages in dynamic discovery, bidirectional communication, and cross-platform interoperability. It identifies open research gaps in security, tool discoverability, and remote deployment.