How to Secure your MCP Servers with Spring Security 🔐 & Spring AI 🤖

Description

Are your MCP servers secure? 🔒 If you're moving from local development to production, this video is ESSENTIAL! Learn how to properly secure Model Context Protocol servers using Spring AI with both OAuth2 and API key authentication strategies. In this comprehensive tutorial, I dive deep into securing MCP servers as they move from local development to public deployment. Following Daniel Garnier-Moiroux's excellent article on Spring AI security, I'll show you exactly how to implement robust authentication for your MCP servers using Spring Security integration. **🎯 What You'll Learn:** • How to implement OAuth2 authentication with Spring Authorization Server and GitHub as IDP • Setting up API key authentication for quick and easy security layers • Understanding the federated authentication flow (with a fun nightclub bouncer analogy!) • Testing secured MCP servers using the MCP Inspector tool • Best practices for choosing between OAuth2 and API key authentication • Real-world examples with working code demonstrations **📚 Key Topics Covered:** 00:00 Introduction to MCP Security Challenges 02:30 Understanding MCP Server Limitations 05:15 OAuth2 Implementation with Spring Authorization Server 08:45 Federated Authentication Explained (The Bouncer Analogy) 12:00 Setting up GitHub as Identity Provider 15:30 Testing OAuth2 Flow with MCP Inspector 18:20 API Key Authentication Implementation 22:00 Security Configuration with Spring Security 25:00 Live Demo: Testing Both Authentication Methods 28:30 Production Considerations & Best Practices **📖 Resources & Links:** - Article by Daniel Garnier-Moiroux: https://spring.io/blog/2025/09/30/spring-ai-mcp-server-security - Spring Office Hours Podcast Episode: https://spring-office-hours.transistor.fm/episodes/spring-office-hours-s4e28-securing-mcp-servers-with-spring-ai - Spring AI Community GitHub: https://github.com/spring-ai-community - MCP Security Repository: https://github.com/danvega/mcps - Model Context Protocol Documentation: https://modelcontextprotocol.io - Dan Vega as a Service (Example MCP Server): https://danvega.dev/mcp **💡 When to Use Each Approach:** - **OAuth2**: When you need enterprise-grade security, have existing infrastructure, and require user identity management - **API Keys**: For quick security layers, simpler deployments, or when OAuth2 infrastructure isn't available **⚠️ Important Security Note:** As MCP servers move into production environments, security becomes critical. This video addresses real vulnerabilities being discovered in unsecured MCP servers and provides practical solutions to protect your deployments. **🚀 Get Started:** Check out the example code repositories linked above and follow along with the implementations. Remember to never commit API keys or secrets to your repositories! 👍 If this helped you secure your MCP servers, please leave a like and subscribe for more Spring AI and security content! 👋🏻Connect with me: Website: https://www.danvega.dev Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealdanvega Github: https://github.com/danvega LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danvega Newsletter: https://www.danvega.dev/newsletter SUBSCRIBE TO MY CHANNEL: http://bit.ly/2re4GH0 ❤️