diff --git a/decnet/templates/syslog_bridge.py b/decnet/templates/syslog_bridge.py
index c0a78d09..a2293fde 100644
--- a/decnet/templates/syslog_bridge.py
+++ b/decnet/templates/syslog_bridge.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ RFC 5424 structure:
 Facility: local0 (16). SD element ID uses PEN 55555.
 """
 
+import base64
 from datetime import datetime, timezone
 from typing import Any
 
@@ -79,6 +80,32 @@ def syslog_line(
     return f"{pri}1 {ts} {host} {appname} {_NILVALUE} {msgid} {sd}{message}"
 
 
+def encode_secret(secret: str) -> dict[str, str]:
+    """Standardized credential-secret encoding for the universal SD-block shape.
+
+    Returns ``{'secret_printable': ..., 'secret_b64': ...}`` ready to spread
+    into a :func:`syslog_line` / ``_log`` call::
+
+        _log("auth_attempt", principal=user, **encode_secret(password))
+
+    ``secret_printable`` mirrors auth-helper.c's sd_escape: bytes outside
+    ``[0x20, 0x7f)`` collapse to ``'?'`` so the field is always parser-safe
+    RFC 5424 ASCII. ``secret_b64`` preserves the *original* utf-8 bytes —
+    NUL/0xff/control/non-utf8 sequences all survive losslessly, useful as
+    a fingerprinting signal even when the printable form sanitizes them.
+
+    The decnet web ingester's native-shape branch keys off ``secret_b64``
+    being present, so any service emitter calling this helper lands its
+    cred attempt directly in the :class:`Credential` table.
+    """
+    raw = secret.encode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+    printable = "".join(chr(b) if 0x20 <= b < 0x7f else "?" for b in raw)
+    return {
+        "secret_printable": printable,
+        "secret_b64": base64.b64encode(raw).decode("ascii"),
+    }
+
+
 def write_syslog_file(line: str) -> None:
     """Emit a syslog line to stdout for container log capture."""
     print(line, flush=True)
diff --git a/tests/services/test_syslog_bridge_helpers.py b/tests/services/test_syslog_bridge_helpers.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e8b6abf1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/services/test_syslog_bridge_helpers.py
@@ -0,0 +1,76 @@
+"""Tests for shared emitter helpers in templates/syslog_bridge.py.
+
+The canonical file is what gets propagated into per-template build
+contexts via ``_sync_logging_helper``. This test file imports it
+directly (not a per-service synced copy) so a regression in the
+canonical surfaces immediately.
+"""
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+import base64
+import importlib.util
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+
+def _load_canonical():
+    """Load the canonical templates/syslog_bridge.py as a module.
+
+    The file isn't a package member (it lives under templates/, not
+    decnet/), so we import via spec-from-path.
+    """
+    repo = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[2]
+    path = repo / "decnet" / "templates" / "syslog_bridge.py"
+    spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location("_canonical_syslog_bridge", path)
+    assert spec and spec.loader
+    mod = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+    spec.loader.exec_module(mod)
+    return mod
+
+
+@pytest.fixture(scope="module")
+def syslog_bridge():
+    return _load_canonical()
+
+
+def test_encode_secret_ascii_passthrough(syslog_bridge):
+    out = syslog_bridge.encode_secret("hunter2")
+    assert out["secret_printable"] == "hunter2"
+    assert base64.b64decode(out["secret_b64"]) == b"hunter2"
+
+
+def test_encode_secret_collapses_nonprintables(syslog_bridge):
+    """ANSI escape, NUL, 0xff bytes → '?' in printable form."""
+    secret = "\x1b[31mbad\x00\xff trail"
+    out = syslog_bridge.encode_secret(secret)
+    # Original utf-8 bytes survive losslessly in b64.
+    assert base64.b64decode(out["secret_b64"]) == secret.encode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+    # Printable form has no control / high bytes.
+    for ch in out["secret_printable"]:
+        assert 0x20 <= ord(ch) < 0x7f
+
+
+def test_encode_secret_empty(syslog_bridge):
+    out = syslog_bridge.encode_secret("")
+    assert out == {"secret_printable": "", "secret_b64": ""}
+
+
+def test_encode_secret_preserves_rfc5424_specials(syslog_bridge):
+    """Backslash / quote / bracket pass through to printable; sd_escape
+    upstream is responsible for the literal RFC 5424 escape on the wire."""
+    secret = 'a\\b"c]d'
+    out = syslog_bridge.encode_secret(secret)
+    assert out["secret_printable"] == 'a\\b"c]d'
+    assert base64.b64decode(out["secret_b64"]) == secret.encode("utf-8")
+
+
+def test_encode_secret_unicode_replaced(syslog_bridge):
+    """Non-ASCII unicode encodes via utf-8, then printable strips the
+    multi-byte sequence to '?' chars (one per raw byte)."""
+    out = syslog_bridge.encode_secret("café")
+    raw = "café".encode("utf-8")  # b'caf\xc3\xa9' — 5 bytes
+    assert base64.b64decode(out["secret_b64"]) == raw
+    # printable: 'c', 'a', 'f', '?', '?' — the two trailing utf-8 bytes
+    # both fall outside [0x20, 0x7f).
+    assert out["secret_printable"] == "caf??"