What changed
In September 2025, OpenAI gave ChatGPT the ability to connect to external Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers through its developer mode. VentureBeat's coverage of the launch called the capability "powerful but dangerous." 4 MCP is the emerging standard that lets AI models call outside tools and systems. With this support, ChatGPT stops being only a conversational assistant and becomes a client that can autonomously trigger actions in other software as part of an ordinary chat session. 1
Weeks later, at DevDay on October 7, OpenAI went further. It introduced the Apps SDK and Agent Kit, which VentureBeat described as a shift from chatbot to platform, with ChatGPT positioned as a new kind of app store. 4 Taken together, the two announcements make MCP connectivity a core part of how ChatGPT is meant to be used, not a fringe experiment.
The "developer" label is misleading
The sharpest criticism from security vendors is about who can actually use these features. Noma Security argues that despite the "Developer Mode" branding, connecting to a remote MCP server takes little technical skill. In practice, any employee with ChatGPT access can do it without training or oversight. 1 Obot makes the same point more concretely. Any paid user, including someone on a Plus plan, can enable developer mode, paste an internal MCP server URL into the connector settings, and begin executing write actions. 2
Obot's illustrative scenario captures the governance problem. An engineer wires ChatGPT to a production CRM and starts modifying records from a chat window that IT cannot see, audit, or revoke. 2 ChatGPT does show confirmation prompts before actions run. Obot's point is that per-action prompts for the individual user are not the same as organizational controls. 2
Two threat models, one blind spot
The sources emphasize different ends of the risk.
Noma focuses on what comes in from outside. It flags malicious MCP servers as the most immediate danger, chiefly as a channel for exfiltrating data. 1 Its later analysis of ChatGPT Apps extends the concern. With the Apps SDK, any developer can turn an MCP server into an app with the potential for destructive actions. Because apps surface contextually in conversation, users may not even realize they are installing something. 3 Noma notes OpenAI launched with partners like Booking.com, Canva, Coursera, Expedia, Figma, Spotify, and Zillow. It also notes plans for a full third-party marketplace. Noma draws an unflattering comparison to Apple's App Store at its 2008 launch, saying ChatGPT's security model looks nothing like it. 3
Obot looks inward. Its concern is that ChatGPT's MCP support changes the threat model for MCP infrastructure companies have already deployed internally. Servers built for controlled use can suddenly be reached from a consumer-facing chat client. 2 It also distinguishes between OpenAI's curated apps directory, with integrations such as Notion, Linear, and Salesforce Agentforce, and the open-ended developer-mode path where users can connect almost anything. 2
These views are complementary, not contradictory. One worries about untrusted servers reaching into the enterprise. The other worries about trusted internal servers being reached from an unmanaged client. Both describe the same root problem: tool connections are being created at the edges of an organization, faster than anyone centrally can track them.
What governance would look like
Obot proposes four prerequisites before organizations enable the feature [2]:
- a centralized MCP gateway that routes connections
- an approved registry of sanctioned servers
- role-based access control at the level of individual tools
- audit logging of every tool call
Noma's recommendations point the same way. Treat MCP connectivity as a new attack surface that needs urgent attention, not as a productivity toggle. 1
Both companies sell security and governance tooling. Their framing naturally favors buying a control layer. Still, the underlying observation holds up without the sales pitch: the client-side guardrails OpenAI ships were designed for individual users, not for enterprises that need visibility and revocation.
The reading
MCP itself is not the core problem. The problem is where the decision to connect gets made. OpenAI is clearly optimizing for frictionless adoption, as shown by the Apps SDK, contextual app discovery, and a coming marketplace. 34 That strategy works against the slow, approval-gated integration processes security teams depend on.
The likely result is a familiar shadow-IT pattern, now with write access to production systems. In practice, organizations that already run MCP servers are the most exposed, because those endpoints now have a new and largely unmonitored client. For them, the practical step is to assume employees will connect ChatGPT to whatever they can reach. That means putting gateways, registries, and logging in front of internal servers now, rather than discovering the connections after the fact.
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