# Cisco MCP Scanner

> Scan MCP servers and tools for malicious behaviour with YARA rules, LLM analysis and Cisco AI Defense.

## Facts
- **Category:** [MCP Servers](https://agentsearchengine.app/category/mcp-servers)
- **Type:** Infrastructure
- **Pricing:** Open source
- **GitHub stars:** 1,074
- **Language:** Python
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Last repo activity:** 4 days ago (Sep 19, 2026)
- **Official site:** https://blogs.cisco.com/ai/securing-the-ai-agent-supply-chain-with-ciscos-open-source-mcp-scanner
- **Source code:** https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/mcp-scanner
- **Listing on Agent Search Engine:** https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/cisco-mcp-scanner
- **Data verified:** September 2026

## Best for
Vetting third-party MCP servers before letting agents use them.

## Avoid if
You want scanning without any external service; the Cisco AI Defense engine needs its API, though the YARA engine does not.

## About Cisco MCP Scanner
Cisco's open-source MCP Scanner checks MCP servers and tools for potential security findings using three engines that can run together or separately: YARA rules, LLM-based analysis and the Cisco AI Defense inspect API. It also scans Python dependencies for known vulnerabilities, and runs as a CLI or a REST API server.

## Install

```
uv tool install --python 3.13 --from git+https://github.com/cisco-ai-defense/mcp-scanner cisco-ai-mcp-scanner
```

## Alternatives
Cisco MCP Scanner sits in mcp servers. Related tools indexed here:
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- [serena](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/serena) — A powerful MCP toolkit for coding, providing semantic retrieval and editing capabilities - the IDE for your agent · Open source · SDK / library · 30k★ · Python · MIT · active today
- [MCP for Blender (blender-mcp)](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/blender-mcp) — Connect Blender to Claude or any LLM client for prompt-driven 3D modelling and scene editing. · Open source · MCP server · 29k★ · Python · MIT · active 2 days ago
- [fastmcp](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/fastmcp) — The fast, Pythonic way to build MCP servers and clients. · Open source · SDK / library · 28k★ · Python · Apache-2.0 · active today

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Source: [Agent Search Engine](https://agentsearchengine.app) — an independent, hand-curated index of AI agents, MCP servers, and frameworks. Rankings are never sold; sponsored placements are labeled and never numbered. Full directory: https://agentsearchengine.app/llms-full.txt