ruby-sdk/lib/mcp
Repository files (latest commit first)
Filename Latest commit message Latest commit date
Koichi ITO afb968c468 Bound Stateful Session Retention to Prevent an Initialize-Flood DoS
## Motivation and Context

In its default configuration `StreamableHTTPTransport` never expired sessions: every successful `initialize` stored
a new `ServerSession` under a fresh UUID, and the only removal path was an explicit client DELETE. An unauthenticated attacker
could repeatedly initialize and immediately disconnect, forcing the server to retain an unbounded number of sessions until
memory is exhausted; the reporter created and held 50,000 sessions in 26.6 seconds from a single client.
The reaper existed but only started when `session_idle_timeout` was set, and there was no cap on the concurrent session count,
so the insecure behavior was the default.

Of the reference SDKs only C# hardens this by default (a finite idle timeout plus a max session count); TypeScript, Python,
and Go all leave sessions unbounded out of the box, and the spec permits (MAY) session expiry. This adopts secure defaults
in the same spirit as C#, with one deliberate difference at the cap (reject vs. evict, below):

- `session_idle_timeout` now defaults to a finite 1800 seconds (30 minutes) in stateful mode, so the existing reaper starts by default
  and idle sessions are reclaimed. Passing `session_idle_timeout: nil` opts out (the previous unbounded behavior); stateless mode
  retains no sessions and keeps no timeout regardless. An internal sentinel distinguishes "argument omitted, apply the default" from
  an explicit `nil`.
- A new `max_sessions` keyword (default 10000) caps the concurrent session count. `handle_initialization` checks and inserts under
  the existing mutex so concurrent initializes cannot race past the limit. At the cap it first reclaims slots held by already-expired sessions
  the 60s reaper has not yet collected (so the cap rejects only when genuinely full, not up to a reaper interval after sessions expired),
  and if still full rejects the new `initialize` with HTTP 503. Unlike the C# SDK, which evicts the oldest idle session, this rejects:
  established sessions stay stable and a legitimate idle session is not evicted on an attacker's behalf, at the cost of refusing new sessions
  while full; a global cap thus bounds memory but can convert the memory-exhaustion DoS into a session-slot-exhaustion DoS,
  which the idle timeout drains over time. Passing `max_sessions: nil` opts out; the cap does not apply to stateless mode.
  The value is validated as a positive Integer or `nil`.

## How Has This Been Tested?

New and updated tests in `test/mcp/server/transports/streamable_http_transport_test.rb`: the finite idle timeout is applied and
the reaper starts by default while normal request flow is unaffected, `session_idle_timeout: nil` and stateless mode both keep
no timeout/reaper, a new `initialize` at `max_sessions` is rejected with 503 while the store stays at the cap, an already-expired session
is reclaimed in-line so a new initialize succeeds at the cap instead of being rejected, `max_sessions: nil` opts out,
and an invalid `max_sessions` raises `ArgumentError`. The pre-existing test asserting the old never-expire default was rewritten to
the new secure default.

## Breaking Changes

Stateful deployments now expire sessions after 30 minutes of inactivity and reject new sessions past 10000 concurrent, where before sessions
lived until an explicit DELETE. This is a security-hardening behavior change, documented in the README; deployments that require
the old unbounded behavior can pass `session_idle_timeout: nil` and `max_sessions: nil`.
2026-07-05 19:39:56 +09:00
..
client Require calling MCP::Client#connect before sending requests on stdio transport 2026-06-26 13:34:47 +09:00
prompt Add _meta field to resource, content, and result classes 2026-04-11 15:08:55 +09:00
resource Add _meta field to resource, content, and result classes 2026-04-11 15:08:55 +09:00
server Bound Stateful Session Retention to Prevent an Initialize-Flood DoS 2026-07-05 19:39:56 +09:00
tool Conform Tool Schemas to JSON Schema 2020-12 per SEP-2106 2026-06-19 21:36:55 +09:00
annotations.rb Add audience role validation for MCP::Annotations per MCP specification 2026-06-22 01:13:17 +09:00
cancellation.rb Support notifications/cancelled per MCP specification 2026-05-03 04:02:22 +09:00
cancelled_error.rb Support notifications/cancelled per MCP specification 2026-05-03 04:02:22 +09:00
client.rb Support client-side notifications/cancelled per MCP specification 2026-06-23 12:39:53 +09:00
configuration.rb Default missing MCP-Protocol-Version to 2025-03-26 in StreamableHTTPTransport 2026-06-07 10:18:33 +09:00
content.rb Add _meta field to resource, content, and result classes 2026-04-11 15:08:55 +09:00
icon.rb Support icons parameter 2025-12-30 05:35:22 +09:00
instrumentation.rb Add around_request hook for request instrumentation 2026-04-11 13:54:47 +09:00
logging_message_notification.rb logging_message_notification: Remove unused require 2026-02-05 16:05:08 -05:00
methods.rb Fix an incorrect result: null response to an id-bearing notification message 2026-07-01 01:55:15 +09:00
progress.rb Support POST response SSE streams for server-to-client messages 2026-04-04 19:20:31 +09:00
prompt.rb Use autoload to defer loading of unused subsystems 2026-03-12 14:08:27 +09:00
resource.rb Add annotations field to MCP::Resource and MCP::ResourceTemplate per MCP specification 2026-06-14 16:05:25 +09:00
resource_template.rb Add annotations field to MCP::Resource and MCP::ResourceTemplate per MCP specification 2026-06-14 16:05:25 +09:00
server.rb Merge pull request #435 from koic/fix_result_null_for_id_bearing_notification 2026-07-02 07:40:40 +09:00
server_context.rb docs: annotate Roots, Sampling, and Logging as deprecated per SEP-2577 2026-06-27 14:02:27 +02:00
server_session.rb docs: annotate Roots, Sampling, and Logging as deprecated per SEP-2577 2026-06-27 14:02:27 +02:00
string_utils.rb Fix ReDoS vulnerability in StringUtils#underscore 2026-01-09 01:14:52 +09:00
tool.rb Use autoload to defer loading of unused subsystems 2026-03-12 14:08:27 +09:00
trace_context.rb Support W3C Trace Context Propagation via _meta per SEP-414 2026-06-12 14:36:24 +09:00
transport.rb Auto-set server.transport in Transport#initialize 2026-04-09 12:08:55 +09:00
version.rb Release 0.22.0 2026-06-27 02:54:30 +09:00