List all courses for the authenticated user
AI agents call list-courses to retrieve information from Canvas MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool queries and returns course information without modifying data, triggering external operations, or causing side effects. It is a straightforward read operation that retrieves existing course data. Severity is low because listing courses has minimal blast radius—the data returned is typically non-sensitive metadata or information already accessible to the authenticated user within their institutional context.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'list-courses' and description 'List all courses for the authenticated user' indicate a retrieval operation with no data modification or execution.
Attacks that exploit this kind of access
List all courses for the authenticated user. It is categorised as a Read tool in the Canvas MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the Canvas MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for list-courses: 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 Canvas MCP Server. Nothing to install.
list-courses 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 list-courses 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 list-courses. 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.
list-courses is provided by the Canvas MCP Server MCP server (ranver/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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