MCPTrace/README.md

MCPTrace

A Volatility 3 plugin for extracting MCP/JSON-RPC message candidates from Windows x64 and Linux x86-64 memory dumps. Preserves message content, process IDs, virtual addresses, and SHA-256 hashes, with optional JSONL export.

Installation

Requires Python 3.10+. Run in an activated virtual environment:

git clone https://github.com/Kowntaewook/MCPTrace.git
cd MCPTrace
python -m pip install .

Usage

Run from the repository root. Choose the plugin matching the dump's OS and replace the example paths and PIDs.

Windows

vol -f windows.raw windows.pslist.PsList
mkdir output-windows
vol -p plugins -f windows.raw -o output-windows windows.mcptrace.MCPTrace --pid 4242 --dump

Linux

Place ISF symbols matching the dump's kernel build in symbols/linux/ first.

vol -s symbols -f linux.lime linux.pslist.PsList
mkdir output-linux
vol -p plugins -s symbols -f linux.lime -o output-linux linux.mcptrace.MCPTrace --pid 4242 --dump

• Omit --pid to scan all processes, or pass multiple PIDs: --pid 4242 5252.
• --dump exports per-process JSONL files to the directory specified by -o.
• Use vol -p plugins windows.mcptrace.MCPTrace -h (or the Linux equivalent) for all options.

Benchmark

Windows Server 2022, Python MCP SDK over stdio: 3 independent RAM captures, 64 tool calls / 133 messages per condition per capture. Results combine both endpoints.

Condition	Messages / 133: mean (range)	Tool pairs / 64: mean (range)
No retained-frame list	59.7 (55-66)	18.3 (15-21)
Retained-frame control	133.0 (133-133)	64.0 (64-64)

CLI median: 53.95 s (53.32-54.48 s, 9 scans of 4 endpoint processes). Acquisition and initial symbol setup are excluded; scans are not cold-cache measurements.

2/3 captures hit candidate search limits (4 and 3 events); these limited results are included. Ground-truth logging affects memory, and retained frames are a favorable control. This is fixture-specific recovery, not general recall. Methodology and full results.