list_processes

What list_processes does on Procmon

AI agents call list_processes to retrieve information from Procmon without modifying anything. It is typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.

Why list_processes is rated Low

This tool queries system state (running processes) but does not modify, execute, or delete anything. However, severity is elevated to 'medium' rather than 'low' because process enumeration combined with the server's access to kernel traces, event logs, and PE analysis could enable reconnaissance for privilege escalation or malware analysis when chained with other tools.

From the tool's definition Tool name 'list_processes' and description 'List processes with optional name or PID filter' indicate a retrieval operation with no side effects. The verb 'list' is quintessentially a read operation.

The rule that runs list_processes safely

PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway: it sits between your AI agents and Procmon, and checks every tool call against a rule you set before the call runs. Nothing changes on the server itself. For list_processes, this is the rule to start with:

{
  "version": "1",
  "default": "deny",
  "tools": {
    "list_processes": {}
  }
}

Questions about list_processes