The Model Context Protocol connects AI agents to your databases, APIs, and file systems. Out of the box, it connects them with no identity, no scoping, and no audit trail. The MCP specification acknowledges this gap explicitly. Its OAuth 2.1 authorization spec marks authentication as optional.The result, according to research published on Security Boulevard in April 2026, is that 53 percent of open-source MCP implementations ship with static API keys. Eighty-eight percent require backend authentication, but only 8.5 percent implement proper credential management. Every one of those static keys is a credential waiting to be stolen, a scope waiting to be abused, and an audit entry that will read "unknown agent executed query" when the incident report is written.