I'm in need of something that should be there

Ralph Smith wrote:

And should be easier to find in the manual!

I've looked in many related chapters of the 8.2 manual for a way to
find out
WHY a specific user has access to a database.

Chapter 5 Data Definition
Chapter 18 Database Roles & Privileges
Chapter 20 Client Authorization

postgres=# select * from pg_roles;
rolname  | rolsuper | rolinherit | rolcreaterole | rolcreatedb |
rolcatupdate | rolcanlogin | rolconnlimit | rolpassword |
rolvaliduntil | rolconfig |  oid
----------+----------+------------+---------------+-------------
+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------
+---------------+-----------+-------
lines removed
smithrn  | f        | f          | t             | t           |
f            | t           |           -1 | ********    |
infinity      |           | 16393

This user can connect via his .pgpass or manually since he's in a
netID range that requires a password.
But he can create and drop tables in any database!!!

Why is that?
How can I find out what he can do?
The GRANT and REVOKE sections say nothing about which pg_xxxx tables
to query, and I've been lookin'!

Thank you!

Ralph Smith

=====================

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/sql-grant.html

"Depending on the type of object, the initial default privileges might
include granting some privileges to PUBLIC. The default is ... CONNECT
privilege and TEMP table creation privilege for databases"

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive
/ddl-schemas.html#DDL-SCHEMAS-PUBLIC

Note that by default, everyone has CREATE and USAGE privileges on the schema
public. This allows all users that are able to connect to a given database
to create objects in its public schema. If you do not want to allow that,
you can revoke that privilege:

REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC;

Ralph Smith wrote:

And should be easier to find in the manual!

I've looked in many related chapters of the 8.2 manual for a way to
find out
WHY a specific user has access to a database.

Chapter 5 Data Definition
Chapter 18 Database Roles & Privileges
Chapter 20 Client Authorization

postgres=# select * from pg_roles;
rolname | rolsuper | rolinherit | rolcreaterole | rolcreatedb |

rolcatupdate | rolcanlogin | rolconnlimit | rolpassword |
rolvaliduntil | rolconfig | oid

----------+----------+------------+---------------+-------------

+--------------+-------------+--------------+------------- 
+---------------+-----------+-------

lines removed
smithrn | f | f | t | t |

f | t | -1 | ******** |
infinity | | 16393

This user can connect via his .pgpass or manually since he's in a
netID range that requires a password.
But he can create and drop tables in any database!!!

Why is that?
How can I find out what he can do?
The GRANT and REVOKE sections say nothing about which pg_xxxx tables
to query, and I've been lookin'!

Thank you!

Ralph Smith

=====================

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/sql-grant.html

"Depending on the type of object, the initial default privileges might
include granting some privileges to PUBLIC. The default is ...
CONNECT
privilege and TEMP table creation privilege for databases"

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive
/ddl-schemas.html#DDL-SCHEMAS-PUBLIC

Note that by default, everyone has CREATE and USAGE privileges on
the schema
public. This allows all users that are able to connect to a given
database
to create objects in its public schema. If you do not want to allow
that,
you can revoke that privilege:

REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC;

====================
Ralph's followup.

So am I to assume that there is no way to query just what privs a user/
role has on an object, anything, from a DB to an index?

Thank you again,
Ralph Smith

Ralph Smith wrote:

So am I to assume that there is no way to query just what privs a
user/role has on an object, anything, from a DB to an index?

Well, obviously you can see what permissions an object has - \dp from
psql. See the manual for details. Run psql with -E if you want to see
the SQL that's being run.

I don't know of a shortcut to see what's been granted/revoked from a
particular role. Hmm - given inheritence of permissions I'm not sure
that's be the most useful approach anyway.

If you want to test a particular privilege, you can use the system
functions of course.
http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/static/functions-info.html#FUNCTIONS-INFO-ACCESS-TABLE

--
Richard Huxton
Archonet Ltd

On Mar 6, 2008, at 11:52 AM, Ralph Smith wrote:

Ralph Smith wrote:

And should be easier to find in the manual!

I've looked in many related chapters of the 8.2 manual for a way to
find out
WHY a specific user has access to a database.

Chapter 5 Data Definition
Chapter 18 Database Roles & Privileges
Chapter 20 Client Authorization

postgres=# select * from pg_roles;
rolname | rolsuper | rolinherit | rolcreaterole | rolcreatedb

| rolcatupdate | rolcanlogin | rolconnlimit | rolpassword |
rolvaliduntil | rolconfig | oid

----------+----------+------------+---------------+-------------

+--------------+-------------+--------------+------------- 
+---------------+-----------+-------

lines removed
smithrn | f | f | t | t

| f | t | -1 | ******** |
infinity | | 16393

This user can connect via his .pgpass or manually since he's in a
netID range that requires a password.
But he can create and drop tables in any database!!!

Why is that?
How can I find out what he can do?
The GRANT and REVOKE sections say nothing about which pg_xxxx

tables

to query, and I've been lookin'!

Thank you!

Ralph Smith

=====================

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/sql-grant.html

"Depending on the type of object, the initial default privileges
might
include granting some privileges to PUBLIC. The default is ...
CONNECT
privilege and TEMP table creation privilege for databases"

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive
/ddl-schemas.html#DDL-SCHEMAS-PUBLIC

Note that by default, everyone has CREATE and USAGE privileges on
the schema
public. This allows all users that are able to connect to a given
database
to create objects in its public schema. If you do not want to allow
that,
you can revoke that privilege:

REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC;

====================
Ralph's followup.

So am I to assume that there is no way to query just what privs a
user/role has on an object, anything, from a DB to an index?

Well, the different database objects have the permissions that have
been granted to them in columns in the catalog tables,
pg_database.datacl, pg_class.relacl, and pg_proc.procacl for
databases, relations, and functions, respectively. That gives
postgres the ability to answer the question "Does this user have a
given access permission for this object?" So, what you could do is
much the same: for a given object, search through its *acl entry and
determine if the given role is there with the pertinent permission, or
if any group* roles in which the given role has membership does. Note
for group role memberships that if the given role was not created with
the INHERIT keyword then they won't have the group role permissions
directly but, given that they do have the ability to change to the
given group role, for your purposes, you could probably consider that
a yes. Also, note that you'd need to follow the role memberships up
any role "chains", for example where role John is in role Billing
which is in role Admin or some such.

* Here I use the term group simply to denote a role in which other
roles have membership.

Erik Jones

DBA | Emma®
erik@myemma.com
800.595.4401 or 615.292.5888
615.292.0777 (fax)

Emma helps organizations everywhere communicate & market in style.
Visit us online at http://www.myemma.com

Ralph Smith wrote:

Ralph Smith wrote:

And should be easier to find in the manual!

I've looked in many related chapters of the 8.2 manual for a way to
find out
WHY a specific user has access to a database.

Chapter 5 Data Definition
Chapter 18 Database Roles & Privileges
Chapter 20 Client Authorization

postgres=# select * from pg_roles;
rolname | rolsuper | rolinherit | rolcreaterole | rolcreatedb |

rolcatupdate | rolcanlogin | rolconnlimit | rolpassword |
rolvaliduntil | rolconfig | oid

----------+----------+------------+---------------+-------------

+--------------+-------------+--------------+-------------
+---------------+-----------+-------

lines removed
smithrn | f | f | t | t |

f | t | -1 | ******** |
infinity | | 16393

This user can connect via his .pgpass or manually since he's in a
netID range that requires a password.
But he can create and drop tables in any database!!!

Why is that?
How can I find out what he can do?
The GRANT and REVOKE sections say nothing about which pg_xxxx tables
to query, and I've been lookin'!

Thank you!

Ralph Smith

=====================

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/sql-grant.html

"Depending on the type of object, the initial default privileges might
include granting some privileges to PUBLIC. The default is ...
CONNECT
privilege and TEMP table creation privilege for databases"

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive
/ddl-schemas.html#DDL-SCHEMAS-PUBLIC

Note that by default, everyone has CREATE and USAGE privileges on
the schema
public. This allows all users that are able to connect to a given
database
to create objects in its public schema. If you do not want to allow
that,
you can revoke that privilege:

REVOKE CREATE ON SCHEMA public FROM PUBLIC;

====================
Ralph's followup.

So am I to assume that there is no way to query just what privs a user/
role has on an object, anything, from a DB to an index?

Thank you again,
Ralph Smith

You could also query information_schema.table_privileges for information
about table grants.

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.3/interactive/infoschema-table-privileges.html

SUPER Eric! Very explanatory!

Thank you!

Ralph Smith
=====================

On Mar 6, 2008, at 10:17 AM, Erik Jones wrote: