Support kerberos authentication for postgres_fdw

Started by Peifeng Qiuabout 5 years ago2 messageshackers
Beta feature

Hackorum builds and tests every patch posted to the lists, not only commitfest submissions. This is Hackorum's own CI rather than the PostgreSQL project's, and it is still under testing - please report anything that looks wrong.

won't retrysuccessCI history

You can run a PostgreSQL built from this patch straight from Docker, with no checkout and no build:

docker run --rm -p 5432:5432 ghcr.io/hackorum-dev/postgres-patch:t44533
psql -h localhost -U postgres

Built from patchset v1 (message #1), July 27, 2026 at 04:37 PM.

Every patchset is also pushed to a branch of our PostgreSQL fork, so you can check out the same tree CI built. Without a PostgreSQL checkout:

git clone --branch t44533_1 https://github.com/hackorum-dev/postgres.git

In a checkout you already have, add the fork once:

git remote add hackorum https://github.com/hackorum-dev/postgres.git

then, for this patchset and every later one:

git fetch hackorum t44533_1 && git checkout t44533_1

Patchset v1 (message #1) is on t44533_1

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#1Peifeng Qiu
peifengq@vmware.com

Hi hackers,

I'd like to add kerberos authentication support for postgres_fdw by adding two
options to user mapping: krb_client_keyfile and gssencmode.

In the backend we have krb_server_keyfile option to specify a keytab file to
be used by postgres server, krb_client_keyfile is doing mostly the same thing.
This allows postgres_fdw(backend process) to authenticate on behalf of a
logged in user who is querying the foreign table. The credential is kept in
the backend process memory instead of local file to prevent abuse by users
on the same host.

Because backend process is accessing the filesystem of the server host, this
option should only be manipulated by super user. Otherwise, normal user may
steal the identity or probe the server filesystem. This principal is the same to
sslcert and sslkey options in user mapping.

Thoughts?

Best regards,
Peifeng

Attachments:

t44533_1
v1-0001-kerberos-pgfdw.patchtext/x-patch; name=v1-0001-kerberos-pgfdw.patchDownload+615-1
#2Michael Paquier
michael@paquier.xyz
In reply to: Peifeng Qiu (#1)
Re: Support kerberos authentication for postgres_fdw

On Fri, Jul 09, 2021 at 10:13:20AM +0000, Peifeng Qiu wrote:

I'd like to add kerberos authentication support for postgres_fdw by adding two
options to user mapping: krb_client_keyfile and gssencmode.

You may want to register this patch into the next commit fest, to get
it reviewed for a potential integration in 15:
https://commitfest.postgresql.org/34/
--
Michael