Github Pat

Detects Github Pat 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: 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: 10
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Compatible, Netskope: Compatible

Pattern

\b(ghp|gho|ghu|ghs|ghr)_[A-Za-z0-9]{36}\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

ghp_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef0123 — GitHub PAT with ghp prefix
gho_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef0123 — GitHub OAuth token
ghs_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef0123 — GitHub server-to-server token

Should not match

ghx_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef01 — Invalid prefix (ghx instead of ghp/gho/ghu/ghs/ghr)
ghp_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef0 — Too few characters after prefix (35 instead of 36)
ghp_ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdef012 — Too many characters after prefix (37 instead of 36)
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

GitHub personal access token entity definition - Microsoft Learn