Asana bug in AI feature may have exposed data to other users

A bug in one of Asana's new AI features made user information accessible to other users for several weeks.

The company said the issue was resolved and it was the result of a malicious hack. Instead, it appeared to be a logic flaw in its MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that was released on May 1, according to cybersecurity firm UpGuard (via BleepingComputer).

MCP is an open-source framework that enables AI assistants to interact with sites and apps. The introduction of Asana's MCP Server enabled companies to integrate AI features like summarization and natural language search from LLMs.

The rise of generative AI tools and new standards that enable interoperability for LLMs create new privacy issues and increased cybersecurity risk. MCP servers are a shiny new target for hackers, and there's also risk of prompt injection attacks, token theft, and a general increase in data leaks since MCPs request broad permission to function smoothly, according to a blog post from cybersecurity firm Pillar.

According to UpGuard, the bug "appears to have been part of this initial release," and was discovered by Asana on June 4. But during this time, Asana users working with the MCP server have been able to access information from other accounts' "projects, teams, tasks, and other Asana objects," according to an email reportedly sent to customers impacted.

In a statement to BleepingComputer, Asana said the bug impacted around 1,000 accounts. Asana has more than 130,000 companies using its project management platform, including some big companies like Uber, Spotify, and Airbnb.

Asana took the server offline and informed customers using the MCP server on June 16 of the bug. "As soon as the vulnerability was discovered, our teams immediately took the MCP server down and resolved the issue in our code," Asana said in its statement to BleepingComputer. Meanwhile, it is working to bring the server back online and sent a contact form to customers potentially impacted to compile a full report of which companies may have had their data exposed.

It's unclear yet if there was any major data breach, but Asana advised companies to review their logs for MCP access and any information generated by their AI tools and report it to Asana if they find any data that doesn't belong to their company.