Enterprise-Grade Authorization for MCP Servers | Cerbos

🔐 New: A CISO’s benchmark for authorization maturity ➔ Download the ebook

MCP server security

Enterprise-grade authorization for MCP servers

Safely expose tools to agents without compromising control, reliability, or auditability, using fine-grained permissions.

Talk to a security engineer

Learn about Cerbos Hub

Trusted by teams building with security in mind

IAM is changing

MCP servers are a hidden security risk

Every MCP server is a new backdoor

MCP servers are being created in a way that allows them to bypass traditional API gateways, authentication layers, and access controls.

Rogue agents wreak havoc

AI agents operate "on behalf of users," but blur the lines of identity. They act without oversight, impersonating users and making destructive decisions.

AI agents break trust perimeters

To perform their tasks, AI agents need access to many services, forcing organizations to grant broad permissions that attackers can exploit.

Real breaches. Real companies. Real consequences.

“1,000 organizations exposed through a single line of code”

- Asana, June 2025

Real breaches. Real companies. Real consequences.

Built for enterprises

Fine-grained authorization for MCP servers with Cerbos

A centralized, scalable solution for dynamically controlling tool availability.

Talk to a security expert

View technical guide

Define access rules

Write simple, declarative rules that define under which conditions users or workloads can access specific MCP tools, and authorize downstream service to service requests.

Deploy Cerbos PDP

Run Cerbos PDP with your policies managed by Cerbos Hub. The stateless service provides an API for MCP servers to query for authorization checks.

Integrate authorization checks

When clients connect, your MCP server calls Cerbos to check which tools are permitted for that user and context, then enables/disables tools accordingly.

Test and iterate

Verify policies work across different roles. Update permissions by modifying policies without touching the MCP server code - Cerbos supports live policy reloading.

Manage access for every identity, human or machine

Workforce

Partners

Customers

Microservices

Workloads

API clients

AI agents

AI workflows

MCP servers

Cerbos Hub Update

Spotlight webinar

Securing MCP servers

Learn about attack surfaces, fine-grained authorization, and your MCP security roadmap.

Watch now

Access management for your stack

The Cerbos approach to future-proof authorization

Build your MCP server IAM strategy

Define, manage, and enforce access policies for all identity types:

Powerful ABAC, RBAC, and PBAC for your MCP servers and AI agents.

Full control over AI agents in cloud, on-prem, or hybrid environments.

Support Zero Trust with least privilege and continuous verification for every machine identity.

Seamless scalability and flexible run-time authorization.

Let's discuss your MCP strategy

Handle authorization at the API gateway, in the service mesh, and microservices

Prevent over-permissioned services with policy-based authorization, one policy engine for both user and service identities.

Enforce least privilege access control among services.

Secure MCP server communication using policy-based access control for delegated service calls.

Implement a principal identity-based delegated authorization strategy.

Apply consistent authorization across cloud-native, containerized, and distributed environments.

Predictable performance at scale driven by the stateless architecture.

Talk to an engineer

Safeguard AI agents, MCP servers, and RAG pipelines

AI agents are non-human identities that access systems autonomously. Govern their actions and control data access to prevent leakage, injection, and overreach.

Secure agentic workflows with centralized policies.

Dynamic, policy-driven prompt filtering to add additional layers of control.

Control what context an LLM is provided with permission-aware data filtering for vector stores.

Enhance RAG architectures using data restricted to the user's permissions.

Let's discuss your MCP strategy

Get full visibility into MCP server and AI agent actions

Centralized audit trails for all non-human identity access decisions across all your applications. Stay compliant with SOC2, ISO27001, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and GDPR.

Capture every authorization check, across services, agents, and APIs, with structured logs that enable full traceability, compliance readiness, and forensic investigations.

Track which AI agent, API client, or workload accessed what, when, on behalf of whom, and which policy granted access, ensuring no identity operates unchecked.

Remove MCP compliance risks with full visibility into your agents actions.

Talk to an engineer

Seamless integration

Perfectly fits into your tech stack

Explore all integrations

Integrations

SDKs

Deployment models

Secure MCP servers at scale

Talk to an expert

“We got the foundation set. Now we can scale and include more complex policies. And we can grow in the right direction and with the right security.”

Edgar Rivera

CEO @4gcapital

Saved per year by switching authorization services.

Policies are updated in minutes when requirements change.

Why enterprises choose Cerbos

Centralized policy management

Manage and enforce authorization consistently across all identity types through one central hub.

Authorize

anywhere

Run your authorization logic anywhere - in the cloud, on the edge, or directly on user's devices.

Grows with your architecture

Support evolving org structures, MCP server and AI agent growth, and complex access models - without rewriting access logic.

Full

Our engineers will demonstrate how Cerbos can help you safely expose tools to agents.