HSM key management metadata

Name: HSM key management metadata
Creator: TestPattern Community
License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Identifies hsm key management metadata patterns in security and access control contexts. Detects potential exposure of sensitive security information in international systems.

Type: regex
Engine: boost_regex
Confidence: medium
Confidence justification: structural regex with domain-specific anchors and constrained context replaces phrase-only marker. Added context gating and exclusion rules improve precision and reduce incidental matches.
Detection quality: Topic verified
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: GDPR
Frameworks: ISO 27001, NIST CSF
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(?:hardware\s+security\s+module|key\s+management|key\s+rotation|key\s+lifecycle|master\s+key|wrapping\s+key|key\s+escrow|key\s+ceremony|cryptographic\s+key)\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

hsm key management metadata, hsm, key, management, metadata, credentials, keys, secrets

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

hardware security module — Primary topic phrase match
key management — Case-insensitive topic phrase match
key rotation — Alternative topic phrase match
key lifecycle — Additional topic phrase match
hardware security module Host: fw01.corp 10.20.30.40 Rule 14: allow tcp/443 from 10.20.0.0/16 Finding: CVE-2025-21298 unpatched on asset ID WS-004471. — Populated tech record 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
hsm key slot — Generic word pair from old broad template should not match
Policy guidance: this procedure explains how records about hardware security module 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.