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Masking

The experimental masking parser and transformer is an extendable module for masking and rehydrating strings. One of the primary use cases for this module is to redact PII (Personal Identifiable Information) from a string before making a call to an llm.

Real world scenario​

A customer support system receives messages containing sensitive customer information. The system must parse these messages, mask any PII (like names, email addresses, and phone numbers), and log them for analysis while complying with privacy regulations. Before logging the transcript a summary is generated using an llm.

Get started​

Basic Example​

Use the RegexMaskingTransformer to create a simple mask for email and phone.

tip

See this section for general instructions on installing integration packages.

npm install @langchain/openai
import {
  MaskingParser,
  RegexMaskingTransformer,
} from "langchain/experimental/masking";

// Define masking strategy
const emailMask = () => `[email-${Math.random().toString(16).slice(2)}]`;
const phoneMask = () => `[phone-${Math.random().toString(16).slice(2)}]`;

// Configure pii transformer
const piiMaskingTransformer = new RegexMaskingTransformer({
  email: { regex: /\S+@\S+\.\S+/g, mask: emailMask },
  phone: { regex: /\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}/g, mask: phoneMask },
});

const maskingParser = new MaskingParser({
  transformers: [piiMaskingTransformer],
});
maskingParser.addTransformer(piiMaskingTransformer);

const input =
  "Contact me at jane.doe@email.com or 555-123-4567. Also reach me at john.smith@email.com";
const masked = await maskingParser.mask(input);

console.log(masked);
// Contact me at [email-a31e486e324f6] or [phone-da8fc1584f224]. Also reach me at [email-d5b6237633d95]

const rehydrated = await maskingParser.rehydrate(masked);
console.log(rehydrated);
// Contact me at jane.doe@email.com or 555-123-4567. Also reach me at john.smith@email.com

API Reference:

note

If you plan on storing the masking state to rehydrate the original values asynchronously ensure you are following best security practices. In most cases you will want to define a custom hashing and salting strategy.

Next.js stream​

Example nextjs chat endpoint leveraging the RegexMaskingTransformer. The current chat message and chat message history are masked every time the api is called with a chat payload.

// app/api/chat

import {
  MaskingParser,
  RegexMaskingTransformer,
} from "langchain/experimental/masking";
import { ChatOpenAI } from "@langchain/openai";
import { PromptTemplate } from "@langchain/core/prompts";
import { BytesOutputParser } from "@langchain/core/output_parsers";

export const runtime = "edge";

// Function to format chat messages for consistency
const formatMessage = (message: any) => `${message.role}: ${message.content}`;

const CUSTOMER_SUPPORT = `You are a customer support summarizer agent. Always include masked PII in your response.
  Current conversation:
  {chat_history}
  User: {input}
  AI:`;

// Configure Masking Parser
const maskingParser = new MaskingParser();
// Define transformations for masking emails and phone numbers using regular expressions
const piiMaskingTransformer = new RegexMaskingTransformer({
  email: { regex: /\S+@\S+\.\S+/g }, // If a regex is provided without a mask we fallback to a simple default hashing function
  phone: { regex: /\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}/g },
});

maskingParser.addTransformer(piiMaskingTransformer);

export async function POST(req: Request) {
  try {
    const body = await req.json();
    const messages = body.messages ?? [];
    const formattedPreviousMessages = messages.slice(0, -1).map(formatMessage);
    const currentMessageContent = messages[messages.length - 1].content; // Extract the content of the last message
    // Mask sensitive information in the current message
    const guardedMessageContent = await maskingParser.mask(
      currentMessageContent
    );
    // Mask sensitive information in the chat history
    const guardedHistory = await maskingParser.mask(
      formattedPreviousMessages.join("\n")
    );

    const prompt = PromptTemplate.fromTemplate(CUSTOMER_SUPPORT);
    const model = new ChatOpenAI({ temperature: 0.8 });
    // Initialize an output parser that handles serialization and byte-encoding for streaming
    const outputParser = new BytesOutputParser();
    const chain = prompt.pipe(model).pipe(outputParser); // Chain the prompt, model, and output parser together

    console.log("[GUARDED INPUT]", guardedMessageContent); // Contact me at -1157967895 or -1626926859.
    console.log("[GUARDED HISTORY]", guardedHistory); // user: Contact me at -1157967895 or -1626926859. assistant: Thank you for providing your contact information.
    console.log("[STATE]", maskingParser.getState()); // { '-1157967895' => 'jane.doe@email.com', '-1626926859' => '555-123-4567'}

    // Stream the AI response based on the masked chat history and current message
    const stream = await chain.stream({
      chat_history: guardedHistory,
      input: guardedMessageContent,
    });

    return new Response(stream, {
      headers: { "content-type": "text/plain; charset=utf-8" },
    });
  } catch (e: any) {
    return new Response(JSON.stringify({ error: e.message }), {
      status: 500,
      headers: {
        "content-type": "application/json",
      },
    });
  }
}

API Reference:

Kitchen sink​

import {
  MaskingParser,
  RegexMaskingTransformer,
} from "langchain/experimental/masking";

// A simple hash function for demonstration purposes
function simpleHash(input: string): string {
  let hash = 0;
  for (let i = 0; i < input.length; i += 1) {
    const char = input.charCodeAt(i);
    hash = (hash << 5) - hash + char;
    hash |= 0; // Convert to 32bit integer
  }
  return hash.toString(16);
}

const emailMask = (match: string) => `[email-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const phoneMask = (match: string) => `[phone-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const nameMask = (match: string) => `[name-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const ssnMask = (match: string) => `[ssn-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const creditCardMask = (match: string) => `[creditcard-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const passportMask = (match: string) => `[passport-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const licenseMask = (match: string) => `[license-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const addressMask = (match: string) => `[address-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const dobMask = (match: string) => `[dob-${simpleHash(match)}]`;
const bankAccountMask = (match: string) => `[bankaccount-${simpleHash(match)}]`;

// Regular expressions for different types of PII
const patterns = {
  email: { regex: /\S+@\S+\.\S+/g, mask: emailMask },
  phone: { regex: /\b\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}\b/g, mask: phoneMask },
  name: { regex: /\b[A-Z][a-z]+ [A-Z][a-z]+\b/g, mask: nameMask },
  ssn: { regex: /\b\d{3}-\d{2}-\d{4}\b/g, mask: ssnMask },
  creditCard: { regex: /\b(?:\d{4}[ -]?){3}\d{4}\b/g, mask: creditCardMask },
  passport: { regex: /(?i)\b[A-Z]{1,2}\d{6,9}\b/g, mask: passportMask },
  license: { regex: /(?i)\b[A-Z]{1,2}\d{6,8}\b/g, mask: licenseMask },
  address: {
    regex: /\b\d{1,5}\s[A-Z][a-z]+(?:\s[A-Z][a-z]+)\*\b/g,
    mask: addressMask,
  },
  dob: { regex: /\b\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}\b/g, mask: dobMask },
  bankAccount: { regex: /\b\d{8,17}\b/g, mask: bankAccountMask },
};

// Create a RegexMaskingTransformer with multiple patterns
const piiMaskingTransformer = new RegexMaskingTransformer(patterns);

// Hooks for different stages of masking and rehydrating
const onMaskingStart = (message: string) =>
  console.log(`Starting to mask message: ${message}`);
const onMaskingEnd = (maskedMessage: string) =>
  console.log(`Masked message: ${maskedMessage}`);
const onRehydratingStart = (message: string) =>
  console.log(`Starting to rehydrate message: ${message}`);
const onRehydratingEnd = (rehydratedMessage: string) =>
  console.log(`Rehydrated message: ${rehydratedMessage}`);

// Initialize MaskingParser with the transformer and hooks
const maskingParser = new MaskingParser({
  transformers: [piiMaskingTransformer],
  onMaskingStart,
  onMaskingEnd,
  onRehydratingStart,
  onRehydratingEnd,
});

// Example message containing multiple types of PII
const message =
  "Contact Jane Doe at jane.doe@email.com or 555-123-4567. Her SSN is 123-45-6789 and her credit card number is 1234-5678-9012-3456. Passport number: AB1234567, Driver's License: X1234567, Address: 123 Main St, Date of Birth: 1990-01-01, Bank Account: 12345678901234567.";

// Mask and rehydrate the message
maskingParser
  .mask(message)
  .then((maskedMessage: string) => {
    console.log(`Masked message: ${maskedMessage}`);
    return maskingParser.rehydrate(maskedMessage);
  })
  .then((rehydratedMessage: string) => {
    console.log(`Final rehydrated message: ${rehydratedMessage}`);
  });

API Reference:

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