False positive: subgraph-registry-mcp flagged as suspicious

[PaulieB14]

Skill

• Slug: subgraph-registry-mcp
• Owner: @PaulieB14
• URL: https://clawhub.ai/PaulieB14/subgraph-registry-mcp
• Version: 0.3.1
• Source: https://github.com/PaulieB14/subgraph-registry

What the skill does

This is an MCP server that provides agent-friendly discovery of 15,500+ classified subgraphs on The Graph Network. It exposes 4 tools: search_subgraphs, recommend_subgraph, get_subgraph_detail, and list_registry_stats.

Flags raised

1. "Environment variable access combined with network send" (src/index.js:458) — This line reads process.env.MCP_HTTP_PORT to configure the SSE/HTTP transport port. This is the standard pattern for any MCP server that supports dual transport (stdio + SSE). The env var controls which port the local HTTP server listens on — it is not exfiltrating data.

2. npx launch mechanism — Standard for npm-published MCP servers. This is how Claude Desktop, Cursor, Claude Code, and OpenClaw all recommend running MCP servers.

3. Runtime download of registry.db from GitHub — On first run, the server downloads a pre-built SQLite database (~5 MB) from the same GitHub repo's releases. This is documented in the SKILL.md under "Network & Data Behavior." The file is a read-only registry of subgraph metadata — no secrets or user data are involved.

4. Optional .env / env var handling — The server reads an optional MCP_HTTP_PORT env var for SSE transport configuration. This is now explicitly documented in the SKILL.md under "Requirements."

5. HTTP/SSE transport on local port — This is the entire point of OpenClaw compatibility. The server can optionally expose an SSE endpoint on a local port (default 3848) for remote agent connections. This is opt-in via --http or --http-only CLI flags.

Why this is a false positive

All flagged patterns are standard MCP server behavior:

• VirusTotal correctly marks this as Benign
• Every MCP server with SSE support will read an env var and open a network port — that's how the MCP SDK's SSEServerTransport works
• The registry.db download is from the same author's GitHub repo and is documented
• No secrets or API keys are required or collected for read-only use

The SKILL.md (v0.3.1) now explicitly declares all requirements, env vars, and network behavior to address these concerns.