Generic Database Credentials in URL

Detects database connection URLs with embedded user:password@host credentials, restricted to database schemes (mongodb/mongodb+srv, postgres/postgresql, mysql, redis/rediss, mssql/sqlserver, oracle, jdbc). Placeholder passwords and localhost/example hosts are rejected; non-database credential URLs (AMQP, LDAP, FTP) belong to a separate service-URL credential classifier.

Type

regex

Engine

universal

Confidence

low

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

Partial

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

8

Platform compatibility

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

Pattern

(?i)\b(?:mongodb(?:\+srv)?|postgres(?:ql)?|mysql|rediss?|mssql|sqlserver|oracle|jdbc:[a-z][a-z0-9]{0,23})://[^/:@\s]{1,64}:(?!(?:password|passw0rd|changeme|placeholder|example|dummy)@)[^/@\s]{1,128}@(?!(?:localhost|127\.0\.0\.1|example\.(?:com|net|org))\b)[^/:\s]{1,255}

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

• postgresql://reporter:S3cret9@db.prod.internal:5432/finance — Database scheme with embedded credentials, host, port and database name
• mongodb+srv://svc-report:Xy9pQ4tW@cluster0.mongo.internal/admin — MongoDB SRV connection string with embedded credentials
• jdbc:mysql://app_user:Q8gT2wZv@db01.corp.local:3306/orders — JDBC database URL with embedded credentials

Should not match

• https://example.com/path — URL without credentials (no user:pass@ section)
• mysql://localhost/mydb — Database URL without credentials
• amqp://user:password@broker.internal — Non-database scheme belongs to a separate service-URL credential classifier
• mysql://db.prod.internal/finance — Database URL without an embedded credential
• Tutorial: mysql://demo:password@example.com/sample — Placeholder password and example host are rejected in the primary; tutorial/sample context is excluded
• 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.

Collections

• Database Connection Strings