AWS Access Key

Name: AWS Access Key
Creator: TestPattern Community
License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Detects AWS Access Key patterns.

Type: regex
Engine: universal
Confidence: high
Confidence justification: High confidence: structurally constrained pattern with corroborative keyword support reduces false positive rates significantly. Added context gating and exclusion rules improve precision and reduce incidental matches.
Detection quality: Verified
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)
Frameworks: CIS Controls, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, PCI-DSS, SOC 2
Data categories: credentials, security
Scope: specific
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b(A3T[A-Z0-9]|AKIA|AGPA|AIDA|AROA|AIPA|ANPA|ANVA|ASIA)[A-Z0-9]{16}\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

api key, api_key, apikey, access key, secret key, private key, auth token, authorization, access token, bearer, conn str, connection string, connectionstring, cookie, credential, database, host, JWT, oauth, passphrase (+37 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE — AWS access key with AKIA prefix
ASIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE — AWS temporary access key (ASIA)
AGPAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE — AWS group key (AGPA)

Should not match

XKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMPLE — Invalid prefix (XKIA instead of AKIA/ASIA/etc.)
AKIA123456789012345 — Too few characters after prefix (15 instead of 16)
AKIAIOSFODNN7EXAMP!E — Contains special character (!) not in allowed set
template example placeholder record identifier — Template/sample context should be excluded even when anchor words are present

Known false positives

Authentication-related terminology in software documentation, security training materials, or system architecture descriptions without actual credentials. Mitigation: Require proximity to credential-specific patterns (API keys, connection strings, tokens) rather than general security terminology.
Code snippets and configuration examples containing credential-related keywords or placeholder values in developer documentation. Mitigation: Check for common placeholder patterns (example.com, localhost, 0000) and documentation file types to reduce false positives from technical writing.