Azure Storage Key

Detects Azure Storage Key patterns. This pattern is based on a Microsoft Purview built-in sensitive information type. Users already running Purview may prefer to enable the built-in SIT directly, or use this version as a starting point for customisation.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

low

Confidence justification

Low confidence: generic pattern format that may match unrelated data. Corroborative evidence keywords are essential for reliable detection. Added context gating and exclusion rules improve precision and reduce incidental matches.

Detection quality

Mixed

Jurisdictions

global

Regulations

Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth)

Frameworks

CIS Controls, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, PCI-DSS, SOC 2

Data categories

credentials, security

Scope

wide

Risk rating

10

Platform compatibility

Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b[A-Za-z0-9/+=\s]{88,96}\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

• ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ — Azure storage account key
• AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA — Test Azure key
• abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz — Mixed-case Azure key

Should not match

• ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMN — Only 86 characters instead of 88
• ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRab — 90 characters instead of 88
• ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLM — Only 85 characters instead of 88
• 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.

References

• Azure storage account key entity definition - Microsoft Learn

Collections

• Cloud Credentials & API Keys