Database connection strings with credentials

Identifies database connection strings with credentials 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

category-aware structural regex with anchor and context constraints replaces phrase-only detection. Added context gating and exclusion rules improve precision and reduce incidental matches.

Detection quality

Topic verified

Jurisdictions

global

Regulations

GDPR, Criminal Code Act 1995 (Cth), NDB Scheme (Cth), SOCI Act 2018 (Cth), TIA Act 1979 (Cth)

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(?:connection\s+string|database\s+credentials|sql\s+server|data\s+source|integrated\s+security|trusted\s+connection)\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

database connection strings with credentials, database, connection, strings, credentials, keys, secrets, api key, api_key, apikey, access key, access token, auth token, authorization, bearer, conn str, connection string, connectionstring, cookie, credential (+39 more)

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

• connection string — Primary topic phrase match
• database credentials — Case-insensitive topic phrase match
• sql server — Alternative topic phrase match
• data source — Additional topic phrase match

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
• secret mfa — Generic word pair from old broad template should not match

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.