diff --git a/pycsw/core/repository.py b/pycsw/core/repository.py
index 1bf9648c5..5e8265a8b 100644
--- a/pycsw/core/repository.py
+++ b/pycsw/core/repository.py
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ def create_engine(clazz, url):
         Engines are memoized by url
         '''
         if url not in clazz._engines:
-            LOGGER.info('creating new engine: %s', url)
+            LOGGER.info('creating new engine: %s', util.sanitize_db_connect(url))
             engine = create_engine('%s' % url, echo=False, pool_pre_ping=True)
 
             # load SQLite query bindings
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ def __init__(self, database, context, app_root=None, table='records', repo_filte
         self.queryables['_all'].update(self.context.md_core_model['mappings'])
 
     def ping(self, max_tries=10, wait_seconds=10):
-        LOGGER.debug(f"Waiting for {self.database}...")
+        LOGGER.debug(f"Waiting for {util.sanitize_db_connect(self.database)}...")
 
         if self.database.startswith('sqlite'):
             sql = 'SELECT sqlite_version();'
@@ -258,12 +258,12 @@ def ping(self, max_tries=10, wait_seconds=10):
                 sleep(wait_seconds)
         else:
             raise RuntimeError(
-                f"Database not responding at {self.database} after {max_tries} tries. ")
+                f"Database not responding at {util.sanitize_db_connect(self.database)} after {max_tries} tries. ")
 
     def rebuild_db_indexes(self):
         """Rebuild database indexes"""
 
-        LOGGER.info('Rebuilding database %s, table %s', self.database, self.table)
+        LOGGER.info('Rebuilding database %s, table %s', util.sanitize_db_connect(self.database), self.table)
         connection = self.engine.connect()
         connection.autocommit = True
         connection.execute('REINDEX %s' % self.table)
@@ -274,7 +274,7 @@ def optimize_db(self):
         """Optimize database"""
         from sqlalchemy.exc import ArgumentError, OperationalError
 
-        LOGGER.info('Optimizing database %s', self.database)
+        LOGGER.info('Optimizing database %s', util.sanitize_db_connect(self.database))
         connection = self.engine.connect()
         try:
             # PostgreSQL
@@ -720,7 +720,7 @@ def setup(database, table, create_sfsql_tables=True, postgis_geometry_column='wk
     from sqlalchemy.types import Float
     from sqlalchemy.orm import create_session
 
-    LOGGER.info('Creating database %s', database)
+    LOGGER.info('Creating database %s', util.sanitize_db_connect(database))
     if database.startswith('sqlite:///'):
         _, filepath = database.split('sqlite:///')
         dirname = os.path.dirname(filepath)
diff --git a/pycsw/core/util.py b/pycsw/core/util.py
index 178a855b4..ea522abc1 100644
--- a/pycsw/core/util.py
+++ b/pycsw/core/util.py
@@ -532,6 +532,19 @@ def load_custom_repo_mappings(repository_mappings: str) -> typing.Optional[typin
     return result
 
 
+def sanitize_db_connect (url):
+    """
+    helper function to remove user:pw from db connect for logging purposes
+
+    :param url: value to be sanitized
+
+    :returns: `str` sanitized
+    """
+    if '@' in url:
+        return url.split('://')[0] + '://***:***@' + url.split('@').pop()
+    else:
+        return url
+
 def str2bool(value: typing.Union[bool, str]) -> bool:
     """
     helper function to return Python boolean
diff --git a/tests/unittests/test_util.py b/tests/unittests/test_util.py
index 9561bf168..66c278a6f 100644
--- a/tests/unittests/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/unittests/test_util.py
@@ -366,3 +366,7 @@ def test_programmatic_import(import_path, expected_attribute):
 def test_programmatic_import_with_invalid_path(invalid_import_path):
     result = util.programmatic_import(invalid_import_path)
     assert result is None
+
+def test_sanitize_url():
+    result = util.sanitize_db_connect("postgresql://username:password@localhost/pycsw")
+    assert result == "postgresql://***:***@localhost/pycsw"