$re = '/(?<=value\=")(?:[^"\\\\<]|\\\\"|\\\\\\\\|\\\\<)++(?=")/';
$str = '<message>
<set name=" value=" />
<set name=".." value="garbled string" type="name" />
<set age=".." value="32" />
<set something=".." value="value=\\"\\"\\"\\"" />
..
</message>';
preg_match($re, $str, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE, 0);
// Print the entire match result
var_dump($matches);
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for PHP, please visit: http://php.net/manual/en/ref.pcre.php