Get all controls in a specific family (e.g., 'AC', 'AU', 'CA')
AI agents call get_control_family to retrieve information from NIST MCP Server without modifying anything — typically the context-gathering step in research, monitoring, and reporting workflows, before the agent takes action elsewhere.
This tool retrieves information about NIST security controls organized by family (e.g., AC for Access Control, AU for Audit). It performs a query and returns data without creating, modifying, deleting, or executing any operations. The blast radius of misuse is minimal—an AI could retrieve irrelevant or excessive control information, but this causes no harm to systems or data.
From the tool's definition Tool name 'get_control_family' and description 'Get all controls in a specific family' indicate a retrieval operation with no modification, deletion, or execution of code.
Documented attack patterns abuse exactly the kind of access get_control_family gives an agent:
PolicyLayer is an MCP gateway — it sits between your AI agents and NIST MCP Server, and nothing reaches the server without passing your rules. This is the rule we recommend for get_control_family:
{
"version": "1",
"default": "deny",
"tools": {
"get_control_family": {}
}
}get_control_family is read-only, so it stays allowed — but everything else on the server is denied unless you say otherwise.
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Get all controls in a specific family (e.g., 'AC', 'AU', 'CA'). It is categorised as a Read tool in the NIST MCP Server MCP Server, which means it retrieves data without modifying state.
Register the NIST MCP Server MCP server in PolicyLayer and add a rule for get_control_family: 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 NIST MCP Server. Nothing to install.
get_control_family 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 get_control_family 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 get_control_family. 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.
get_control_family is provided by the NIST MCP Server MCP server (tnicholson/nist-mcp-server). PolicyLayer sits as a proxy in front of this server to enforce policies before tool calls reach the server.
Start from NIST MCP Server, add the rest of your stack, and see everything your agents can call. Then put policy on all of it.
Free to start. No card required.
44 NIST MCP Server tools catalogued and risk-classified — across an index of 43,000+ MCP servers.