NVD (National Vulnerability Database) MCP server

The MCP NVD Server is a specialized server that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to retrieve Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) information from the National Vulnerability Database. It provides an interface for accessing detailed vulnerability data through MCP.

Installation Prerequisites

Before installing the MCP NVD Server, you need to have the following tools installed on your system:

• uv - For Python dependency management
• Node.js - Required for MCP Inspector

Setting Up the Server

After installing the prerequisites, synchronize the dependencies using uv:

uv sync

This command will install all required dependencies and update the lockfile.

Using MCP NVD Server

Running with MCP Inspector

The MCP Inspector provides a helpful interface for testing and debugging your MCP NVD Server implementation. To use it:

1. Install the MCP Inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector

2. Launch the server with the inspector:

npx @modelcontextprotocol/inspector uv --directory /path/to/mcp-nvd run mcp-nvd

Replace /path/to/mcp-nvd with the actual path to your MCP NVD server directory.

Managing NVD API Rate Limits

The National Vulnerability Database implements API rate limiting which may affect your usage of the MCP NVD Server.

Adding an API Key

To increase your rate limits and improve performance, you should obtain and use an NVD API key:

1. Visit the NVD Getting Started page for information about the API
2. Request your API key at NVD API Key Request
3. Once you have your key, you can use it with the MCP NVD Server to increase your request allowance

Using an API key will give you higher rate limits compared to anonymous access.

Example Usage

The MCP NVD Server allows you to fetch detailed information about specific CVEs, including descriptions and references. For example, with a properly configured server, you can retrieve information for CVEs like "CVE-2025-30065" which would return full vulnerability details from the NVD database.

How to install this MCP server

For Claude Code

To add this MCP server to Claude Code, run this command in your terminal:

claude mcp add-json "mcp-nvd" '{"command":"uv","args":["run","mcp-nvd"]}'

See the official Claude Code MCP documentation for more details.

For Cursor

There are two ways to add an MCP server to Cursor. The most common way is to add the server globally in the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file so that it is available in all of your projects.

If you only need the server in a single project, you can add it to the project instead by creating or adding it to the .cursor/mcp.json file.

Adding an MCP server to Cursor globally

To add a global MCP server go to Cursor Settings > Tools & Integrations and click "New MCP Server".

When you click that button the ~/.cursor/mcp.json file will be opened and you can add your server like this:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp-nvd": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "mcp-nvd"
            ]
        }
    }
}

Adding an MCP server to a project

To add an MCP server to a project you can create a new .cursor/mcp.json file or add it to the existing one. This will look exactly the same as the global MCP server example above.

How to use the MCP server

Once the server is installed, you might need to head back to Settings > MCP and click the refresh button.

The Cursor agent will then be able to see the available tools the added MCP server has available and will call them when it needs to.

You can also explicitly ask the agent to use the tool by mentioning the tool name and describing what the function does.

For Claude Desktop

To add this MCP server to Claude Desktop:

1. Find your configuration file:

• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Linux: ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

2. Add this to your configuration file:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "mcp-nvd": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "run",
                "mcp-nvd"
            ]
        }
    }
}

3. Restart Claude Desktop for the changes to take effect