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MCP-AUT-006

WWW-Authenticate includes a scope parameter

MCP servers SHOULD include a scope parameter in the WWW-Authenticate header as defined in RFC 6750 Section 3.spec anchor

How to fix this

Add a `scope` parameter to the `WWW-Authenticate` challenge (RFC 6750 §3). Without it the client has to guess which scopes to request, and a wrong guess costs the user a round trip through consent.

How the validator checks this

Probe P8.1, against a streamable-http server on the modern protocol. What it reports:

pass
Challenge names the scopes required
warn
WWW-Authenticate has no scope parameter, so a client must guess which scopes to request

Quoted from the probe that runs this check, so it cannot drift from what the validator actually reports.

This rule is checked deterministically: a fail here is a certain violation, not an inference.

Checked in the same request as MCP-AUT-001, MCP-AUT-007, MCP-AUT-008, MCP-SEC-007.

Check your own server against this rule

The validator makes real protocol requests and reports this rule as pass, warn or fail alongside the other 78. Validate a server or read how the check works.

Other Authorization rules

  • MCP-AUT-001Unauthenticated request returns 401 with WWW-Authenticate resource_metadata
  • MCP-AUT-002RFC 9728 Protected Resource Metadata is served and valid
  • MCP-AUT-003PRM resource equals the canonical server URI
  • MCP-AUT-004Each listed authorization server exposes RFC 8414 or OIDC discovery metadata
  • MCP-AUT-005AS advertises authorization_response_iss_parameter_supported: true
  • MCP-AUT-007Insufficient scope returns 403 with error="insufficient_scope"
  • MCP-AUT-008Tokens with a foreign audience are rejected
  • MCP-AUT-009offline_access absent from scopes_supported / challenge scope
  • MCP-AUT-010AS advertises S256 in code_challenge_methods_supported
  • MCP-AUT-011AS supports Client ID Metadata Documents, not DCR alone