BUG #17106: Renaming system types is possible and it potentially leads to a crash
The following bug has been logged on the website:
Bug reference: 17106
Logged by: Alexander Lakhin
Email address: exclusion@gmail.com
PostgreSQL version: 13.3
Operating system: Ubuntu 20.04
Description:
While dropping system types is prohibited (say, you can't DROP TYPE void),
renaming is not. So the following commands lead to an inevitable crash.
ALTER TYPE void RENAME TO void_void;
CREATE TABLE void(id int);
CREATE EXTENSION pg_stat_statements;
SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset();
(Superuser rights required for this, though.)
On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 04:00:01AM +0000, PG Bug reporting form wrote:
While dropping system types is prohibited (say, you can't DROP TYPE void),
renaming is not. So the following commands lead to an inevitable crash.
ALTER TYPE void RENAME TO void_void;
CREATE TABLE void(id int);
CREATE EXTENSION pg_stat_statements;
SELECT pg_stat_statements_reset();(Superuser rights required for this, though.)
Like one of those many stupid things one can do as a superuser :)
This does not seem worth worrying about to me.
--
Michael
On Thu, Jul 15, 2021 at 9:21 AM PG Bug reporting form
<noreply@postgresql.org> wrote:
...
While dropping system types is prohibited (say, you can't DROP TYPE void),
renaming is not. So the following commands lead to an inevitable crash.
... example removed.
(Superuser rights required for this, though.)
Any competent programmer can crash a machine, any competent DBA can
crash a DB, anyone with physical access can unplug a server, or set it
on fire.
Given it is not an easy mistake to make ( "DROP type void" is way more
dangerous, being so simple ), I would consider this anecdotal. I doubt
"survive an hostile DBA" is an objective for postgresql.
Francisco Olarte.