US Social Security Number (SSN) — PII context Regex for Java

What this pattern does

This page provides a comprehensive, battle-tested regular expression for matching us social security number (ssn) — pii context, ported and verified for Java. Identity and credential patterns need both correctness and safety, since they're frequent targets for adversarial input. The snippet below is ready to drop into your Java project — whether you're validating in a Spring Boot controller, a Jakarta EE service, or a standalone utility class.

Java Implementation

// US Social Security Number (SSN) — PII context
// ReDoS-safe | RegexVault — Identity & PII > Financial PII

import java.util.regex.Pattern;

public class UsSocialSecurityNumberSsnPiiContextValidator {
    private static final Pattern PATTERN =
        Pattern.compile("^(?!(?:000|666|9[0-9]{2})-|[0-9]{3}-(?:00|[0-9]{3}-0{4}))(?:[0-9]{3})-(?:[0-9]{2})-(?:[0-9]{4})$");

    public static boolean validate(String input) {
        return PATTERN.matcher(input).matches();
    }

    // Example
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        System.out.println(validate("123-45-6789")); // true
    }
}

Test Cases

When to use this pattern

This pattern is drawn from the Identity & PII > Financial PII category and carries a ReDoS-safe certification. That matters for Java developers because critical in Java applications since the JVM regex engine uses backtracking and is susceptible to ReDoS without careful pattern design. RegexVault audits patterns against known backtracking attack vectors, ensuring you have the necessary context before using this regex in a high-stakes production environment.

Common Pitfalls

Technical Notes

Intentionally included in Identity & PII batch in addition to Finance batch (fin-tax-01) to ensure Aurora surfaces the appropriate data handling warnings in both contexts. SSN is the most sensitive financial PII in the US — its exposure enables identity theft.