VNX-SEC-061: PostgreSQL connection string with credentials

Reports a PostgreSQL connection URL (postgres://, postgresql+driver://, jdbc:postgresql) that embeds a literal password, but not interpolated or default passwords, localhost servers, documentation or example files.

Field	Value
Rule ID	`VNX-SEC-061`
Severity	Critical
SARIF level	`error`
Kind	`secrets`
Languages	Any file
CWE	CWE-798
CAPEC	CAPEC-191
ATT&CK	T1552.001
CWSS vector	`CWSS:1.0/TI:C/AP:A/AL:A/IC:N/FC:LT/RP:N/RL:A/AV:I/AS:N/IN:A/SC:A/BI:C/DI:H/EX:H/EC:N/P:W`
Tags	`secrets` `postgres` `database` `credentials` `connection-string`
Source	`internal/sast/rules/vnx-sec-061.rego`

Overview

This rule reports a PostgreSQL connection URL that embeds a literal password: postgres:// or postgresql://user:password@host, with an optional driver suffix (postgresql+psycopg2, postgresql+asyncpg) or jdbc: prefix, and a jdbc:postgresql URL carrying a password= parameter, in code, config, .env and compose files. The password is masked in the snippet.

It does not report a password that is interpolated or templated (${VAR}, $VAR, {{ }}, %s, <password>, f-string or template-literal fields, concatenation), a default or placeholder word (password, postgres, changeme, the user name itself), a server on localhost or a documentation host (example.com, *.test, a bare host or hostname), 127.0.0.1 or ::1, URLs without a password, Markdown/reStructuredText/AsciiDoc and *.example/*.sample/*.template files, or test, fixture, vendored and generated files. VNX-SEC-008 reports the same URLs for every database scheme.

What Gets Flagged

# FLAGGED: SQLAlchemy URL with a literal password
engine = create_engine("postgresql+psycopg2://reporting:<password>@pg.acme.internal/analytics")

# FLAGGED: JDBC URL with a password parameter
spring.datasource.url=jdbc:postgresql://pg.acme.internal:5432/shop?user=shop&password=<password>

# NOT FLAGGED: the password comes from the environment
DATABASE_URL = f"postgresql://{os.environ['PGUSER']}:{os.environ['PGPASSWORD']}@db:5432/app"

Why This Matters

Hardcoded postgresql connection string with credentials values are routinely scraped by automated bots within minutes of a public push, and then used to access the account, exfiltrate data, or pivot into downstream services. Once the credential is in git history it is permanently in third-party hands.

Remediation

Revoke the leaked credential in the provider’s console immediately.
Replace with a short-lived alternative, OAuth 2.0 access tokens, IAM role assumption, OIDC federation, wherever the platform supports it.
Store the new credential in a secrets manager (AWS Secrets Manager, HashiCorp Vault, GitHub Actions secrets, Doppler).
Audit the provider’s access logs for activity you did not initiate between the leak and the revocation.
Purge from git history with git filter-repo or BFG, then re-scan with gitleaks/truffleHog to confirm no other secrets remain.
Enable push protection so future commits are blocked at the developer machine.

References

Suppressing this rule

Put a nosec comment on the line, or on line 1 to cover the whole file. Use the comment marker of the file’s language (#, //, -- or ;):

# nosec vnx-sec-061
// nosec vnx-sec-061

Or record an ignore rule: vulnetix ignore add --rule vnx-sec-061 --reason "...". See Suppressing findings.