User mapping security

Started by PG Bug reporting formalmost 7 years ago5 messagesdocs
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#1PG Bug reporting form
noreply@postgresql.org

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html
Description:

Regarding the documentation pages
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html?origin_team=T02HEPYKQ
and https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/sql-createusermapping.html

I suppose it should be warned on the pages that foreign credentials with be
stored as simple text and will be available for viewing in pg_user_mappings.

#2Bruce Momjian
bruce@momjian.us
In reply to: PG Bug reporting form (#1)
Re: User mapping security

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 02:01:00AM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html
Description:

Regarding the documentation pages
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html?origin_team=T02HEPYKQ
and https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/sql-createusermapping.html

I suppose it should be warned on the pages that foreign credentials with be
stored as simple text and will be available for viewing in pg_user_mappings.

I know this is four years old, but the attached patch documents it. I
don't think postgresql-fdw needs it since it relies on user mapping and
discourages passwords in the connection string.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

Only you can decide what is important to you.

Attachments:

usermap.difftext/x-diff; charset=us-asciiDownload+5-1
#3Stephen Frost
sfrost@snowman.net
In reply to: Bruce Momjian (#2)
Re: User mapping security

Greetings,

* Bruce Momjian (bruce@momjian.us) wrote:

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 02:01:00AM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

The following documentation comment has been logged on the website:

Page: https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html
Description:

Regarding the documentation pages
https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/postgres-fdw.html?origin_team=T02HEPYKQ
and https://www.postgresql.org/docs/10/sql-createusermapping.html

I suppose it should be warned on the pages that foreign credentials with be
stored as simple text and will be available for viewing in pg_user_mappings.

I know this is four years old, but the attached patch documents it. I
don't think postgresql-fdw needs it since it relies on user mapping and
discourages passwords in the connection string.

A bit on the fence about it ... but I do wonder if we should encourage
use of gssapi and credential delegation now that we support that and
point out that storing passwords isn't required if you're using gssapi.

Thanks,

Stephen

Show quoted text
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_user_mapping.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_user_mapping.sgml
index 55debd5401..e93bfe48f6 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_user_mapping.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/ref/create_user_mapping.sgml
@@ -92,7 +92,11 @@ CREATE USER MAPPING [ IF NOT EXISTS ] FOR { <replaceable class="parameter">user_
This clause specifies the options of the user mapping.  The
options typically define the actual user name and password of
the mapping.  Option names must be unique.  The allowed option
-      names and values are specific to the server's foreign-data wrapper.
+      names and values are specific to the server's foreign-data
+      wrapper.  Option values, including passwords, are visible in the
+      <link
+      linkend="catalog-pg-user-mapping"><structname>pg_user_mapping</structname></link>
+      system view.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
#4Tom Lane
tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us
In reply to: Bruce Momjian (#2)
Re: User mapping security

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 02:01:00AM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

I suppose it should be warned on the pages that foreign credentials with be
stored as simple text and will be available for viewing in pg_user_mappings.

I know this is four years old, but the attached patch documents it. I
don't think postgresql-fdw needs it since it relies on user mapping and
discourages passwords in the connection string.

This is far too alarmist. It ignores the privilege restrictions that
are built into the pg_user_mappings view. Random users can't see
umoptions.

regards, tom lane

#5Bruce Momjian
bruce@momjian.us
In reply to: Tom Lane (#4)
Re: User mapping security

On Thu, Nov 9, 2023 at 05:03:33PM -0500, Tom Lane wrote:

Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> writes:

On Tue, Jul 16, 2019 at 02:01:00AM +0000, PG Doc comments form wrote:

I suppose it should be warned on the pages that foreign credentials with be
stored as simple text and will be available for viewing in pg_user_mappings.

I know this is four years old, but the attached patch documents it. I
don't think postgresql-fdw needs it since it relies on user mapping and
discourages passwords in the connection string.

This is far too alarmist. It ignores the privilege restrictions that
are built into the pg_user_mappings view. Random users can't see
umoptions.

True. I wasn't sure how much of an issue it was to expose passwords at
the SQL level, but I will drop the idea.

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com

Only you can decide what is important to you.