- 2 minutes to read

Sensitive Data in Generated Articles

New 7.12

BizTalk configuration holds secrets next to the facts worth documenting. When Generate Articles from BizTalk writes your documentation, Nodinite masks values that look like secrets, so passwords and keys never end up in an Article that many people can read. What it can't mask safely, it reports, so you can fix it at the source.

Understanding the Masking

flowchart LR Facts["fa:fa-database BizTalk facts"] --> Check{"fa:fa-magnifying-glass Looks like
a secret?"} Check -->|"No: addresses, servers,
queues, folders, URLs"| Shown["fa:fa-eye Shown in full"] Check -->|"Yes"| Masked["fa:fa-mask Masked as ••••••
counted in Masked values"] Masked -->|"found in free text"| Health["fa:fa-triangle-exclamation Documentation Health:
Sensitive data to fix at source"] style Facts fill:#2678BD style Shown fill:#93d16d style Masked fill:#3F827B style Health fill:#FFD525

Every BizTalk fact (blue) is checked. Addresses and names are shown in full (green). Secret-looking values are masked and counted (teal). Masked values found in free text are also listed in Documentation Health (yellow), because only you can remove them in BizTalk.

What Is Masked

Value Shown as
Addresses, server names, queue names, folders, and URLs ✅ In full; they are not secrets
Adapter and pipeline settings whose name looks like a secret: password, pwd, secret, key, token, sas, connectionstring, credential ••••••
The credential part of an address or connection string ••••••; the host and path stay visible
Password-like text in port, orchestration, and application descriptions ••••••

Nodinite never reads Enterprise Single Sign-On (SSO).

Per-instance pipeline configuration is included only when Per-instance pipeline configuration (redacted) is ticked under Advanced on the wizard's Articles step, and it is masked the same way; see Generate Articles from BizTalk.

Where Masked Values Are Reported

  • The preview of an Integration Article on the wizard's Articles step shows masked values as ••••••, exactly as the run would write them, before anything is written.
  • The run result shows Masked values for the run.

Fix at Source

A secret in a setting is masked every time, so the Article stays safe. A secret typed into a description in BizTalk is different: it is free text that Nodinite can only mask, not remove, and it stays in BizTalk for anyone with access there.

Documentation Health therefore lists such values as Sensitive data to fix at source, on the generated Building Block that holds them. To clear the finding:

  1. Open the Building Block named in the finding and note the BizTalk artifact it describes.
  2. In BizTalk, remove the secret from that artifact's description.
  3. Re-run the generation, or click Refresh from BizTalk on the Building Block; see Keeping Generated Articles Up to Date.

Documentation Health finding Sensitive data to fix at source on a generated Building Block (7.12)
A Sensitive data to fix at source finding names the Building Block that holds the masked text.

Next Steps