Which integrations are available for this server?

Provides comprehensive access to the Kali Linux security toolset, enabling AI assistants to perform network scanning, web enumeration, and vulnerability assessments in a containerized security environment. Integrates the Metasploit Framework, allowing AI agents to search for security exploits and conduct penetration testing operations.

How do I use Kali MCP Server?

1. Click on "Install Server". 2. Wait a few minutes for the server to deploy. Once ready, it will show a "Started" state. 3. In the chat, type @ followed by the MCP server name and your instructions, e.g., "@Kali MCP Server Run a quick vulnerability scan on example.com" That's it! The server will respond to your query, and you can continue using it as needed. Here is a step-by-step guide with screenshots.

Kali MCP Server

A production-ready MCP (Model Context Protocol) server running in a Kali Linux Docker container, providing AI assistants with access to 35 security tools covering the full offensive security lifecycle.

Overview

This project provides a Docker containerized MCP server that runs on Kali Linux, giving AI assistants (like Claude) access to a full suite of security and penetration testing tools. The server communicates via Server-Sent Events (SSE) or stdio and allows AI to execute commands in a controlled environment.

Quick Start

Building and Running the Container

# Quick start with the helper script ./run_docker.sh # Or manually: docker build -t kali-mcp-server . docker run -p 8000:8000 kali-mcp-server

Connecting to Claude Desktop

Edit your Claude Desktop config file at ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json:

{ "mcpServers": { "kali-mcp-server": { "transport": "sse", "url": "http://localhost:8000/sse", "command": "docker run -p 8000:8000 kali-mcp-server" } } }

Restart Claude Desktop
Test with: /run nmap -F localhost

Available MCP Tools (35)

Core Tools

Tool	Description
`run`	Execute shell commands in the Kali Linux environment
`fetch`	Fetch and analyze web content from URLs
`resources`	List available system resources and command examples

Reconnaissance & Scanning

Tool	Description
`port_scan`	Smart nmap wrapper with scan presets (quick, full, stealth, udp, service, aggressive)
`dns_enum`	Comprehensive DNS enumeration with zone transfer attempts
`network_discovery`	Multi-stage network reconnaissance and discovery
`subdomain_enum`	Subdomain enumeration using subfinder, amass, waybackurls
`recon_auto`	Automated multi-stage reconnaissance pipeline

Web Application Testing

Tool	Description
`vulnerability_scan`	Automated vulnerability assessment with multiple tools
`web_enumeration`	Web application discovery and enumeration
`web_audit`	Comprehensive web application security audit
`spider_website`	Web crawling and spidering using gospider
`form_analysis`	Discover and analyze web forms
`header_analysis`	HTTP header security analysis
`ssl_analysis`	SSL/TLS security assessment using testssl.sh

Credential & Brute-Force Attacks

Tool	Description
`hydra_attack`	Brute-force credential testing via hydra (SSH, FTP, HTTP, SMB, MySQL, RDP, etc.)
`credential_store`	Store/retrieve discovered credentials tied to sessions

Payload & Exploit Tools

Tool	Description
`payload_generate`	Generate payloads using msfvenom (reverse shell, bind shell, meterpreter)
`reverse_shell`	Generate reverse shell one-liners for bash, python, php, perl, powershell, nc, ruby, java
`exploit_search`	Search for exploits using searchsploit

Encoding & Hash Tools

Tool	Description
`encode_decode`	Multi-format encoding/decoding (base64, URL, hex, HTML, ROT13)
`hash_identify`	Identify hash types with Hashcat mode and John format lookup

Tool	Description
`enum_shares`	SMB/NFS share enumeration (smbclient, enum4linux, showmount)

Output Parsing

Tool	Description
`parse_nmap`	Parse nmap text/XML output into structured JSON findings
`parse_tool_output`	Parse output from nikto, gobuster, dirb, hydra, or sqlmap

Evidence & Reporting

Tool	Description
`save_output`	Save content to timestamped files for evidence collection
`create_report`	Generate structured reports (markdown, text, JSON)
`file_analysis`	Analyze files (type detection, strings, hashes, metadata)
`download_file`	Download files from URLs with hash verification

Session Management

Tool	Description
`session_create`	Create a new pentest session
`session_list`	List all sessions with metadata
`session_switch`	Switch between sessions
`session_status`	Show current session status
`session_delete`	Delete a session and its evidence
`session_history`	Show command history for current session

Tool Details

`port_scan` - Smart Nmap Wrapper

Runs nmap with predefined scan presets, generating both text and XML output.

/port_scan target=192.168.1.1 scan_type=quick /port_scan target=10.0.0.0/24 scan_type=aggressive ports=80,443,8080

Scan Presets:

Preset	Nmap Flags
`quick`	`-F -sV`
`full`	`-sS -sV -p-`
`stealth`	`-sS -T2 --max-retries 1`
`udp`	`-sU --top-ports 100`
`service`	`-sV --version-intensity 5 -sC`
`aggressive`	`-A -T4`

`dns_enum` - DNS Enumeration

Queries all DNS record types and attempts zone transfers.

/dns_enum domain=example.com /dns_enum domain=target.com record_types=a,mx,ns,txt

`recon_auto` - Automated Recon Pipeline

Runs a multi-stage reconnaissance pipeline with configurable depth.

/recon_auto target=example.com depth=quick /recon_auto target=10.0.0.1 depth=standard /recon_auto target=target.com depth=deep

Depth Levels:

Depth	Phases
`quick`	DNS enumeration, quick port scan, header analysis
`standard`	+ service scan, SSL analysis, exploit search
`deep`	+ subdomain enumeration, web enumeration, vulnerability scan

`hydra_attack` - Brute-Force Testing

/hydra_attack target=192.168.1.1 service=ssh username=admin passlist=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt /hydra_attack target=10.0.0.1 service=ftp userlist=users.txt passlist=passwords.txt threads=32

Supported Services: ssh, ftp, http-get, http-post-form, smb, mysql, rdp, telnet, vnc, pop3, imap, smtp

`payload_generate` - Msfvenom Payloads

/payload_generate payload_type=reverse_shell platform=linux lhost=10.0.0.1 lport=4444 format=elf /payload_generate payload_type=meterpreter platform=windows lhost=10.0.0.1 format=exe

Payload Types: reverse_shell, bind_shell, meterpreter Platforms: linux, windows, osx, php, python Formats: elf, exe, raw, python, php, war

`reverse_shell` - Shell One-Liners

Generates ready-to-use reverse shell commands with listener hints.

/reverse_shell lhost=10.0.0.1 shell_type=bash lport=4444 /reverse_shell lhost=10.0.0.1 shell_type=python lport=9999

Shell Types: bash, python, php, perl, powershell, nc, ruby, java

`encode_decode` - Encoding Utility

/encode_decode data="hello world" operation=encode format=base64 /encode_decode data="aGVsbG8gd29ybGQ=" operation=decode format=base64 /encode_decode data="<script>alert(1)</script>" operation=encode format=html

Formats: base64, url, hex, html, rot13

`hash_identify` - Hash Identification

Identifies hash types by regex and returns Hashcat mode numbers and John format names.

/hash_identify hash_value=5d41402abc4b2a76b9719d911017c592 /hash_identify hash_value=$2y$10$abcdefghijklmnopqrstuuABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ012345

Supported Types: MD5, SHA-1, SHA-256, SHA-512, bcrypt, SHA-512/256/MD5 Crypt, NTLM, Apache APR1, MySQL, Django

`enum_shares` - Share Enumeration

/enum_shares target=192.168.1.1 enum_type=all /enum_shares target=10.0.0.1 enum_type=smb username=admin password=pass

Enum Types: smb (smbclient + enum4linux), nfs (showmount), all

`credential_store` - Credential Management

Stores discovered credentials as JSON tied to the active session.

/credential_store action=add username=admin password=pass123 service=ssh target=10.0.0.1 /credential_store action=list /credential_store action=search username=admin

`parse_nmap` - Nmap Output Parser

Parses both text and XML nmap output into structured JSON with hosts, open ports, services, OS detection, and script output.

/parse_nmap filepath=port_scan_10_0_0_1_quick_20240101_120000.txt /parse_nmap filepath=scan_results.xml

`parse_tool_output` - Generic Output Parser

Auto-detects and parses output from nikto, gobuster, dirb, hydra, or sqlmap.

/parse_tool_output filepath=nikto_results.txt /parse_tool_output filepath=gobuster_output.txt tool_type=gobuster

`vulnerability_scan`

/vulnerability_scan target=127.0.0.1 scan_type=quick /vulnerability_scan target=example.com scan_type=comprehensive

Scan Types: quick, comprehensive, web, network

`web_enumeration`

/web_enumeration target=http://example.com enumeration_type=full

Types: basic, full, aggressive

`network_discovery`

/network_discovery target=192.168.1.0/24 discovery_type=comprehensive

Types: quick, comprehensive, stealth

Pre-installed Tools

The Docker container includes the following tools, all enabled for use through the run command:

Category	Tools
Network Scanning	nmap, masscan, netcat, tcpdump, tshark
Web Testing	nikto, gobuster, dirb, sqlmap, wfuzz, ffuf, feroxbuster, whatweb, wafw00f
Exploitation	metasploit-framework (msfconsole, msfvenom), searchsploit
Credential Attacks	hydra, hashcat, john
Information Gathering	whois, dig, nslookup, amass, subfinder, theharvester, recon-ng, fierce, dnsenum, dnsrecon
Web Crawling	gospider, waybackurls
Share Enumeration	smbclient, enum4linux, showmount (nfs-common)
SSL/TLS	testssl.sh, openssl
HTTP Probing	httpx-toolkit, curl, wget
File Analysis	file, strings, binwalk, exiftool, xxd, hexdump
Utilities	python3, perl, ruby, php, git, base64, jq

All commands are allowed by default inside the container. The container itself is the security boundary - it runs as a non-root user with no access to the host filesystem.

Security Considerations

Container isolation: The server runs inside an isolated Docker container as non-root user mcpuser
Input sanitization: Shell metacharacters (;, &, |) are stripped from all command input
No host access: The container has no access to the host filesystem or network stack
Authorization required: Only use for legitimate security testing with proper authorization
Local only: The container should not be exposed to the internet

Requirements

Docker
Claude Desktop or other MCP client (SSE or stdio)
Port 8000 available on your host machine

Development

Setup

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/kali-mcp-server.git cd kali-mcp-server python -m venv .venv source .venv/bin/activate pip install -e ".[dev]"

Running Checks

# All checks ./run_tests.sh # Individual pyright # Type checking ruff check . # Linting ruff format . # Formatting pytest # All tests pytest tests/test_tools.py # Single file pytest -k "session" # Pattern match

Architecture

Adding a new tool requires changes in three places:

kali_mcp_server/tools.py - Implement the async function
kali_mcp_server/server.py - Add dispatch in handle_tool_request() and schema in list_available_tools()
tests/ - Add tests in both test_tools.py and test_server.py

Acknowledgements

Kali Linux for their security-focused distribution
Anthropic for Claude and the MCP protocol
The open-source security tools community

Kali MCP Server

Overview

Quick Start

Building and Running the Container

Connecting to Claude Desktop

Available MCP Tools (35)

Core Tools

Reconnaissance & Scanning

Web Application Testing

Credential & Brute-Force Attacks

Payload & Exploit Tools

Encoding & Hash Tools

Share Enumeration

Output Parsing

Evidence & Reporting

Session Management

Tool Details

port_scan - Smart Nmap Wrapper

dns_enum - DNS Enumeration

recon_auto - Automated Recon Pipeline

hydra_attack - Brute-Force Testing

payload_generate - Msfvenom Payloads

reverse_shell - Shell One-Liners

encode_decode - Encoding Utility

hash_identify - Hash Identification

enum_shares - Share Enumeration

credential_store - Credential Management

parse_nmap - Nmap Output Parser

parse_tool_output - Generic Output Parser

vulnerability_scan

web_enumeration

network_discovery