Hacker News user profile by username. Returns id, account creation time (unix + ISO), karma, the about/bio text, number of items submitted, and the canonical news.ycombinator.com profile URL. Unknown user returns an empty result.
AI agents call news.hn-user to retrieve information from Mcp without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries and retrieves publicly available information from Hacker News user profiles. It performs a read-only operation with no capability to modify, delete, or execute actions. The data returned (user metadata, karma, bio) is informational only. Low severity due to minimal sensitivity of public profile data and no destructive or operational capabilities.
From the tool's definition Tool description states it "Returns id, account creation time (unix + ISO), karma, the about/bio text, number of items submitted, and the canonical news.ycombinator.com profile URL" — purely retrieves public user profile data with no modification, deletion,…
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
Hacker News user profile by username. Returns id, account creation time (unix + ISO), karma, the about/bio text, number of items submitted, and the canonical news.ycombinator.com profile URL. Unknown user returns an empty result. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Mcp MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for news.hn-user: allow, deny, rate-limit, or require approval. Point your MCP client at the PolicyLayer proxy URL and the rule is enforced on every call, before it reaches Mcp. Nothing to install.
news.hn-user is a Read tool with low risk. Read-only tools are generally safe to allow by default.
Yes. Add a rate_limit block to the news.hn-user rule in your PolicyLayer policy. For example, setting max: 10 and window: 60 limits the tool to 10 calls per minute. Rate limits are tracked per agent session and reset automatically.
Set action: deny in the PolicyLayer policy for news.hn-user. The AI agent will receive a policy violation error and cannot call the tool. You can also include a reason field to explain why the tool is blocked.
news.hn-user is provided by the MCP server (@2sio/mcp). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Every MCP server has a record like this.
Type a name, get the same breakdown: verified identity, auth posture, risk grade, capabilities, recommended policy.
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