Bearer

Detects JWT-shaped values presented with the Bearer authentication scheme. A bare scheme/value pair is discovery-only; an Authorization header enforces at medium confidence and a complete HTTP request or response context reaches high.

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

Risk rating

8

Platform compatibility

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

Pattern

\b[Bb]earer\s+[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\.[A-Za-z0-9_-]+\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, [object Object], oauth, passphrase (+33 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxIn0.reCjcZ0-m3Q — Low-tier probe - bare Bearer credential without transport framing
• Authorization: bearer eyJhbGciOiJub25lIn0.eyJ0ZXN0IjoiMSJ9.abc — Medium-tier probe - JWT-shaped value in an Authorization header
• GET /admin HTTP/1.1 Host: api.example.org Authorization: Bearer eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.eyJpZCI6MSwiYWRtaW4iOnRydWV9.sig — High-tier probe - Authorization header inside a complete HTTP request

Should not match

• Bearer single-segment-token — Only one segment instead of three dot-separated
• Token eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxIn0.sig — Wrong keyword (Token instead of Bearer)
• Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxIn0 — Only two dot-separated segments instead of three
• Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxIn0.REDACTED — Placeholder token in an otherwise valid Authorization header
• Documentation example: Authorization: Bearer eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiIxIn0.abc — Documentation quoting a valid header must not enforce
• Authorization: Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz — Sibling HTTP Basic authorization scheme

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.

Collections

• Cloud Credentials & API Keys