diff --git a/src/lib/redact.ts b/src/lib/redact.ts
index 2206a9baa9..482192b85d 100644
--- a/src/lib/redact.ts
+++ b/src/lib/redact.ts
@@ -100,13 +100,6 @@ const OTHER_FRAMED_CREDENTIALS: Array<[RegExp, string]> = [
     ),
     "element",
   ],
-  [
-    new RegExp(
-      `(<[^\\S\\r\\n]*(?:[A-Za-z_][\\w.-]*:)?[A-Za-z_][\\w:.-]*)(?=[^>]*?(?<![\\w:.-])(?:name|key|id)[^\\S]*=[^\\S]*["']?(?:${CREDENTIAL_HEADER_LABEL})["']?(?=[\\s/>]))[\\s\\S]*`,
-      "gi",
-    ),
-    "element",
-  ],
   // Multipart part: everything from a credential-named part header to the end
   // of the input. Part-based, not line-based — a body can span lines and the
   // blank line is often missing in a malformed echo.
@@ -136,7 +129,60 @@ const OTHER_FRAMED_CREDENTIALS: Array<[RegExp, string]> = [
 function maskOtherFramings(value: string): string {
   // Same union rule as the header pass: decoding may add coverage, never
   // remove it.
-  return maskOtherFramingsOnce(maskOtherFramingsOnce(value, true), false);
+  const decoded = maskOtherFramingsOnce(value, true);
+  const decodedXml = maskXmlIdentifyingAttribute(decoded, true);
+  const plain = maskOtherFramingsOnce(decodedXml, false);
+  return maskXmlIdentifyingAttribute(plain, false);
+}
+
+const XML_TAG_NAME = /<[^\S\r\n]*(?:[A-Za-z_][\w.-]*:)?[A-Za-z_][\w:.-]*/y;
+const XML_CREDENTIAL_ATTRIBUTE = new RegExp(
+  `(?<![\\w:.-])(?:name|key|id)[^\\S]*=[^\\S]*["']?(?:${CREDENTIAL_HEADER_LABEL})["']?(?=[\\s/>])`,
+  "i",
+);
+
+/** Find a tag terminator without treating a quoted attribute's `>` as syntax. */
+function findXmlTagClose(text: string, from: number): number {
+  let quote = "";
+  for (let index = from; index < text.length; index += 1) {
+    const character = text.charAt(index);
+    if (quote) {
+      if (character === quote) quote = "";
+    } else if (character === '"' || character === "'") {
+      quote = character;
+    } else if (character === ">") {
+      return index;
+    }
+  }
+  return -1;
+}
+
+/** Scan each tag once; a suffix-searching lookahead here makes unterminated tags quadratic. */
+function maskXmlIdentifyingAttribute(value: string, decodeEscapes: boolean): string {
+  const { folded, map } = foldForMatching(value, decodeEscapes);
+  let searchFrom = 0;
+  while (searchFrom < folded.length) {
+    const relativeStart = folded.indexOf("<", searchFrom);
+    if (relativeStart === -1) return value;
+    const tagStart = relativeStart;
+    XML_TAG_NAME.lastIndex = tagStart;
+    const tagName = XML_TAG_NAME.exec(folded);
+    if (!tagName) {
+      searchFrom = tagStart + 1;
+      continue;
+    }
+    const close = findXmlTagClose(folded, tagStart + tagName[0].length);
+    const tagEnd = close === -1 ? folded.length : close + 1;
+    const attributes = folded.slice(tagStart + tagName[0].length, tagEnd);
+    if (XML_CREDENTIAL_ATTRIBUTE.test(attributes)) {
+      const start = map[tagStart] ?? value.length;
+      const headEnd = map[tagStart + tagName[0].length] ?? value.length;
+      return value.slice(0, start) + value.slice(start, headEnd) + REDACTED_SECRET;
+    }
+    if (close === -1) return value;
+    searchFrom = tagEnd;
+  }
+  return value;
 }
 
 function maskOtherFramingsOnce(value: string, decodeEscapes: boolean): string {
diff --git a/structure/transports/byte-accounting.md b/structure/transports/byte-accounting.md
index f514bcdcb5..72f3945eb1 100644
--- a/structure/transports/byte-accounting.md
+++ b/structure/transports/byte-accounting.md
@@ -104,6 +104,14 @@ Canonical Responses identity sanitation and narrowly scoped pre-output combo rec
 
 ## Response-log inspection
 
+`src/lib/redact.ts` scans XML identifying attributes over disjoint tag spans rather than
+searching the remaining suffix from each opening delimiter. Tag terminators are quote-aware,
+so `>` inside a single- or double-quoted attribute cannot hide later credential attributes.
+The decoded and raw passes
+retain the original-offset mapping and mask a credential-bearing element through the rest
+of the input. `tests/lib/redact.test.ts` counts delimiter searches and scanned characters across doubled inputs
+without a machine-speed deadline, as well as malformed and escaped credential coverage.
+
 `src/server/response-log-body.ts` forwards raw response chunks on downstream demand.
 Diagnostic retention is limited to 32 MiB for JSON and an 8 KiB prefix for other
 HTTP error bodies. Fixed 64 KiB blocks also bound per-chunk bookkeeping. These
diff --git a/tests/lib/redact.test.ts b/tests/lib/redact.test.ts
index f15e4aa30d..0f8f1a5ec9 100644
--- a/tests/lib/redact.test.ts
+++ b/tests/lib/redact.test.ts
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-import { describe, expect, test } from "bun:test";
+import { describe, expect, spyOn, test } from "bun:test";
 import { readFileSync } from "node:fs";
 import { foldForMatching } from "../../src/lib/redact-folding";
 import { repoPath } from "../helpers/repo-root";
@@ -335,6 +335,70 @@ describe("redactSecretString", () => {
       .toBe('<field data-name="authorization">public-status</field>');
   });
 
+  test("XML delimiter search work scales linearly without a wall-clock deadline", () => {
+    for (const tag of ["<a ", "<a >", '<a title="x>y">', '<a title="x>y" ']) {
+      const work: number[] = [];
+      for (const count of [4_000, 8_000]) {
+        const input = tag.repeat(count);
+        let searched = 0;
+        const original = String.prototype.indexOf;
+        const originalCharAt = String.prototype.charAt;
+        const characters = spyOn(String.prototype, "charAt").mockImplementation(function (this: string, index) {
+          searched += 1;
+          return originalCharAt.call(this, index);
+        });
+        const scan = spyOn(String.prototype, "indexOf").mockImplementation(function (this: string, needle, start) {
+          const found = original.call(this, needle, start);
+          if (needle === "<" || needle === ">") {
+            searched += (found < 0 ? this.length : found + 1) - (start ?? 0);
+          }
+          return found;
+        });
+        try {
+          expect(redactSecretString(input)).toBe(input);
+        } finally {
+          scan.mockRestore();
+          characters.mockRestore();
+        }
+        expect(searched).toBeGreaterThan(0);
+        expect(searched).toBeLessThanOrEqual(4 * input.length);
+        work.push(searched);
+      }
+      expect(work[1]!).toBeLessThanOrEqual(2 * work[0]! + 8);
+    }
+  });
+
+  test("XML attribute scanning keeps credential coverage after malformed and escaped prefixes", () => {
+    const prefix = "π ratio∶1\n";
+    for (const input of [
+      '<a '.repeat(4_000) + 'name="authorization">synthetic-xml-canary',
+      '<a >'.repeat(4_000) + '<field id="x-api-key">synthetic-xml-canary',
+      '<field name="author&#105;zation">synthetic-xml-canary',
+      '<field key="authorization"\n value="synthetic-xml-canary">',
+    ]) {
+      const result = redactSecretString(prefix + input);
+      expect(result.startsWith(prefix)).toBe(true);
+      expect(result).toContain(REDACTED_SECRET);
+      expect(result).not.toContain("synthetic-xml-canary");
+    }
+  });
+
+  test("XML quoted tag delimiters cannot hide a later credential attribute", () => {
+    for (const tag of [
+      '<field title="a>b" name="authorization">',
+      "<field title='a>b' key='x-api-key'>",
+      '<field title="a>b" note=\'c>d\' id="password">',
+      '<field title="a&gt;b" name="author&#105;zation">',
+    ]) {
+      const result = redactSecretString("diagnostic: safe\n" + tag + "synthetic-xml-canary");
+      expect(result).toBe("diagnostic: safe\n<field" + REDACTED_SECRET);
+    }
+    const harmless = '<field title="a>b">public-status</field>';
+    expect(redactSecretString(harmless)).toBe(harmless);
+    expect(redactSecretString(harmless + '<field name="authorization">synthetic-xml-canary'))
+      .toBe(harmless + "<field" + REDACTED_SECRET);
+  });
+
   test("a multipart credential part is masked through the rest of the body", () => {
     // Line-based masking left a multi-line body and the no-blank-line shape
     // partly intact, and stopping at the first `--` trusted an attacker-chosen