DNS zone files

Name: DNS zone files
Creator: TestPattern Community
License: https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT

Identifies dns zone files 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: Not detected
Jurisdictions: global
Regulations: GDPR
Data categories: credentials, security
Scope: wide
Platform compatibility: Purview: Compatible, GCP DLP: Compatible, Macie: Compatible, Zscaler: Compatible, Palo Alto: Degraded, Netskope: Unsupported

Pattern

(?im)\b(?:\$ORIGIN|\$TTL|SOA|IN\s+(?:A|AAAA|CNAME|MX|NS|TXT|SRV))\b

Corroborative evidence keywords

dns zone files, dns, zone, files, operations, resilience

Proximity: 300 characters

Should match

DNS zone files — Exact phrase marker match
dns zone files — Case-insensitive phrase match
DNS zone files — Normalized whitespace phrase
structured sample with matching anchors — Structural anchor sample

Should not match

unrelated generic text — No relevant phrase context
placeholder value 12345 — Random text should not match phrase marker
generic policy prose without anchors — Should reject generic mentions without structural anchor terms
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

https://www.cyber.gov.au/resources-business-and-government/essential-cyber-security/ism
https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/about-us/our-portfolios/emergency-management
https://www.disasterassist.gov.au/
https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/australian-privacy-principles-guidelines/chapter-11-app-11-security-of-personal-information