Title: MCP-SafetyBench: A Benchmark for Safety Evaluation of Large Language Models with Real-World MCP Servers
Primary area: datasets and benchmarks
Keywords: MCP, Safety Benchmark, MCP Attack

Abstract: Large language models (LLMs) are evolving into agentic systems that reason, plan, and operate external tools. The Model Context Protocol (MCP) is a key enabler of this transition, offering a standardized interface for connecting LLMs with heterogeneous tools and services. Yet MCP's openness and multi-server workflows introduce new safety risks that existing benchmarks fail to capture, as they focus on isolated attacks or lack real-world coverage. We present \textbf{MCP-SafetyBench}, a comprehensive benchmark built on real MCP servers that supports realistic multi-turn evaluation across five domains—browser automation, financial analysis, location navigation, repository management, and web search. It incorporates a unified taxonomy of 20 MCP attack types spanning server, host, and user sides, and includes tasks requiring multi-step reasoning and cross-server coordination under uncertainty. Using MCP-SafetyBench, we systematically evaluate leading open- and closed-source LLMs, revealing large disparities in safety performance and escalating vulnerabilities as task horizons and server interactions grow. Our results highlight the urgent need for stronger defenses and establish MCP-SafetyBench as a foundation for diagnosing and mitigating safety risks in real-world MCP deployments.Our benchmark is available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/MCP-SafetyBench-5738.