List active terminal sessions
AI agents call terminal_list to retrieve information from MCP Shell Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
Listing active terminal sessions is a read-only operation with no side effects. It retrieves state information but does not create, modify, delete, or execute anything. Even though it provides visibility into running processes, the risk is minimal without further action by other tools. Low severity reflects that this information alone does not enable harmful operations—it only informs about existing sessions.
From the tool's definition Tool is named 'terminal_list' and described as 'List active terminal sessions' — a pure query operation that retrieves information about existing terminals without modifying, deleting, or executing anything.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List active terminal sessions. It is categorised as a Read tool in the MCP Shell Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the MCP Shell Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for terminal_list: 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 Shell Server. Nothing to install.
terminal_list 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 terminal_list 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 terminal_list. 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.
terminal_list is provided by the MCP Shell Server MCP server (mako10k/mcp-shell-server). 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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