High-risk tools in Hercules MCP

High severity Hercules MCP MCP Server 33 of 45 tools

33 of the 45 tools in Hercules MCP are classified as high risk. This page profiles those tools specifically, with recommended policy actions and the attack patterns that target them.

Every operation listed below is an action PolicyLayer recommends controlling at the transport layer. Open any tool to see the full profile, risk score, and YAML policy snippet.

Tools at high risk

browser_act Execute

Interact with an element (click/fill/type/press/hover/select/check).
browser_cmd Execute

Escape hatch: run any agent-browser subcommand against the stealth session.
browser_eval Execute

Run JavaScript in the page and return the result.
browser_open Execute

Open a URL in a stealth Chromium session.
browser_session Execute

Manage browser sessions / live-view stream.
browser_wait Execute

Wait for a selector / ms / text / url / load state.
bruteforce_hydra Execute

bruteforce_hydra
crack_john Execute

Offline password cracking using John the Ripper. Hashes written to temp file.
ctf_binwalk Execute

Firmware/archive analysis and extraction using binwalk.
ctf_steghide Execute

Steganography analysis and extraction via steghide.
fuzz_dirs Execute

Directory brute-forcing (gobuster/ffuf).
metasploit_generate_payload Execute

Generate a payload. Tries RPC first, falls back to msfvenom CLI.
metasploit_manage Execute

Manage Metasploit sessions and jobs.
metasploit_run_module Execute

metasploit_run_module
metasploit_start_listener Execute

Start exploit/multi/handler as a background job to catch reverse shells.
ncat Execute

Use ncat to connect, listen, or interact with a background listener.
network_curl Execute

HTTP client (curl) for arbitrary web requests.
network_hping3 Execute

Packet crafting and firewall testing (hping3).
nmap_run_nse_script Execute

Run a custom NSE script against a target.
nmap_scan Execute

Run nmap in quick, aggressive, port, script, or custom mode.
nmap_write_nse_script Execute

Write custom NSE script and update DB.
nuclei_run Execute

Run nuclei vulnerability scanner against targets.
recon_amass Execute

Subdomain enumeration via amass.
recon_dns Execute

Run DNS lookups with dig or bulk DNS resolution with dnsx.
searchsploit Execute

Exploit-DB search or exploit retrieval.
shell_exec Execute

shell_exec
shell_exec_background Execute

Run a long shell command in the background, returning a job_id.
shell_kill_job Execute

Kill a running background shell job (useful for stuck commands).
sqlmap_run Execute

Automated SQL injection suite. Always uses --batch.
system_start_new_session Execute

system_start_new_session
system_stop_container Execute

system_stop_container
web_scan Execute

Run one web fingerprinting scanner selected by tool.
web_vuln_scan Execute

Run Dalfox XSS scanning or Commix command-injection scanning.

Attacks that target this class

High-risk tools in any server share these documented attack patterns. Each links to the full case and the defensive policy.

Destructive Action Autonomy
Runaway Tool Loops
Prompt Injection via Tool Results

High-risk tools in Hercules MCP

Tools at high risk

Attacks that target this class

More on Hercules MCP

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