We Rated 5,928 MCP Servers. Zero Scored an A.

SpiderRating Research··5 min read
MCPSecurityDataAI AgentsEcosystem ReportGrade Distribution

> TL;DR: We rated 5,928 MCP servers on a 10-point security scale. Zero scored an A. Average: 4.81/10. 1,287 servers (22%) have Grade D or F, meaning known security issues. These numbers are calibrated — we manually audited our F-grades and corrected a 14% false positive rate.

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Grade Distribution

GradeScore RangeCount%
A9.0 – 10.000%
B7.0 – 8.92684.5%
C5.0 – 6.94,37373.8%
D3.0 – 4.91,18920.1%
F0.0 – 2.9981.7%

Average score: 4.81/10 — right at the C/D boundary. Half the ecosystem is below average.

Key Findings

1. Zero A-Grade Servers

Not one of 5,928 servers scores 9.0 or above. The best reach high B (8.5-8.9). Even the most security-conscious MCP servers have room for improvement.

2. 74% Cluster in Grade C

The vast majority of servers are "works but nobody secured it" — functional code with minimal security attention. This is the long tail of the MCP ecosystem.

3. 22% Have Known Issues

1,287 servers (D + F grade) have below-average security or critical vulnerabilities. That's more than 1 in 5 MCP servers your AI agent might connect to.

4. Description Quality is the Bottleneck

The three scoring dimensions reveal where the ecosystem struggles:

DimensionWeightAverageProblem
Description Quality38%3.13/1098% of tools lack "when to use" guidance
Security Analysis34%6.21/10Injection, path traversal, hardcoded secrets
Metadata Health28%5.89/10Missing licenses, no tests, abandoned repos

Description quality is the biggest drag on scores. 98% of tools don't tell the AI agent *when* to use them. This isn't just a quality issue — it's a security surface. When an agent can't distinguish between tools, a malicious tool can insert itself with a better-sounding description.

5. Descriptions Are Fixable

The spidershield rewrite command auto-fixes tool descriptions using structured templates. In our tests, it lifts description scores from 3.1 → 7.5+ (a 2.4x improvement) with zero code changes:

npx spidershield rewrite ./your-server

This alone can move a server from D to C grade.

How We Ensure Accuracy

These numbers are calibrated. We manually audited our F-grade servers by reading source code and found a 14% false positive rate. 16 servers were upgraded from F to B/C/D after review. The remaining 98 F-grade ratings were confirmed accurate.

Full audit details: spiderrating.com/blog/we-scanned-5928-mcp-servers-then-audited-the-worst

What You Can Do

If you maintain an MCP server: 1. Scan it: npx spidershield scan ./your-server 2. Fix descriptions: npx spidershield rewrite ./your-server 3. Check your rating: spiderrating.com/servers/{owner}/{repo}

If you use MCP servers: 1. Check ratings before connecting: spiderrating.com 2. Add runtime protection: SpiderShield PreToolUse hook blocks F-grade servers 3. Star the scanner if useful: github.com/teehooai/spidershield

Methodology

  • Scanner: SpiderShield v0.3.2, open source (MIT)
  • 46+ security rules (OWASP-aligned)
  • 3-layer scoring: Description (38%) + Security (34%) + Metadata (28%)
  • Hard constraints: critical vulnerability → F cap
  • Calibrated: 14% FP rate, 16 corrections applied
  • Deterministic: same input always produces same output

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*Browse all 5,928 ratings at spiderrating.com. Scan your server: npx spidershield scan. Source: github.com/teehooai/spidershield (MIT).*