How to Grant AI Agents Access to Internal APIs via MCP: Key Questions Security Teams Will Ask
As AI agents increasingly need to call internal APIs, security teams focus on three core questions: who granted access, how to revoke it, and how to investigate incidents after the fact. The answers lie in operation-level access control rather than traffic inspection alone. MCP, now managed by the Agentic AI Foundation under the Linux Foundation, has become the standard for connecting AI agents to enterprise systems with hundreds of millions of SDK downloads monthly. The article details how NEOMSA APIM implements MCP servers, tool publication from OpenAPI specs, subscription-based scopes, and 15 independent security checks. It explains why classic traffic filters fail against valid but unauthorized tool calls and stresses the need for owner approval, application-specific identities, and proper identity propagation through token exchange. Rate limiting at the subscription level and business-object validation are presented as essential controls to prevent overreach and duplication.
HabrSep 22, 2026Translated from Russian