API interface specifications

Identifies api interface specifications patterns in security and access control contexts. Detects potential exposure of sensitive security information in Australian systems.

Type: regex
Engine: boost_regex
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: structural regex with domain-specific anchors and constrained context replaces phrase-only marker.
Detection quality: Not detected
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: NDB Scheme (Cth), Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 (Cth), Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979 (Cth), GDPR
Frameworks: CIS Controls, DISP, ISO 27001, NIST CSF, PCI-DSS, SOC 2
Data categories: credentials, security
Scope: wide
Risk rating: 8
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Degraded, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?is)\b(?:api\s+specification|interface\s+specification|api\s+endpoint|REST\s+API|api\s+documentation|api\s+contract|api\s+schema|service\s+interface)\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

api interface specifications, api, interface, specifications, software, engineering, architecture, faceprint, facial recognition, facial geometry, face scan, face ID, facial template, facial data, face detection

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

api specification — Primary topic phrase match
interface specification — Case-insensitive topic phrase match
api endpoint — Alternative topic phrase match
REST API — Additional topic phrase match
Api specification Hostname: app-prd-01.corp.local username: svc_deploy Source 10.20.30.40 tcp/443 — Populated technical artefact reaching the 75/85 structure gate

Should not match

unrelated generic text without domain phrases — No relevant topic phrases present
placeholder value 12345 — Random text should not match topic-specific regex
openapi post — Generic word pair from old broad template should not match
Api specification: Hostname: username: — Empty form: the heading and field labels without values must not corroborate themselves (discovery only)
Policy guidance: this procedure explains how records about api specification are handled, who may access them and how long they are kept. It contains no records about any person or system. — Policy guidance naming the topic without any record (discovery only)

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.