modelcontextprotocol / modelcontextprotocol/python-sdk

OAuth TokenHandler should check Authorization header for client credentials

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#1,315 6 comments 2 reactions 1 assignee View on GitHub

@pcarleton is already working on this.

Since Jun 4, 2026.

auth enhancement
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Description

Description

Currently, TokenHandler assumes that the Token request's body contains client credentials. However, some OAuth requests would contain client credentials in Authorization header:
Image

In this case, it would throw ValidationError even though client credentials are provided in request header.

Can we add a fallback such that if client_id is not found in formData, we try to get it from header? e.g.

async def handle(self, request: Request):
    try:
        form_data = dict(await request.form())

        # Try to get client credentials from header if missing in body
        if "client_id" not in form_data:
            auth_header = request.headers.get("Authorization")
            if auth_header and auth_header.startswith("Basic "):
                encoded = auth_header.split(" ")[1]
                decoded = base64.b64decode(encoded).decode("utf-8")
                client_id, _, client_secret = decoded.partition(":")
                client_secret = urllib.parse.unquote(client_secret)
                form_data.setdefault("client_id", client_id)
                form_data.setdefault("client_secret", client_secret)

        token_request = TokenRequest.model_validate(form_data).root
    except ValidationError as validation_error:
        return self.response(
            TokenErrorResponse(
                error="invalid_request",
                error_description=stringify_pydantic_error(validation_error),
            )
        )
    ...

Thanks.

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