<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Authentication methods</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79"><LINK REV="MADE" HREF="mailto:pgsql-docs@postgresql.org"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Client Authentication" HREF="client-authentication.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Client Authentication" HREF="client-authentication.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Authentication problems" HREF="client-authentication-problems.html"><LINK REL="STYLESHEET" TYPE="text/css" HREF="stylesheet.css"><META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><META NAME="creation" CONTENT="2007-02-02T03:57:22"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="5" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >PostgreSQL 8.0.11 Documentation</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication.html" >Fast Backward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="60%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 19. Client Authentication</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication.html" >Fast Forward</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication-problems.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="AUTH-METHODS" >19.2. Authentication methods</A ></H1 ><P > The following subsections describe the authentication methods in more detail. </P ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="AUTH-TRUST" >19.2.1. Trust authentication</A ></H2 ><P > When <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > authentication is specified, <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > assumes that anyone who can connect to the server is authorized to access the database with whatever database user they specify (including the database superuser). Of course, restrictions made in the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >database</TT > and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >user</TT > columns still apply. This method should only be used when there is adequate operating-system-level protection on connections to the server. </P ><P > <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > authentication is appropriate and very convenient for local connections on a single-user workstation. It is usually <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >not</I ></SPAN > appropriate by itself on a multiuser machine. However, you may be able to use <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > even on a multiuser machine, if you restrict access to the server's Unix-domain socket file using file-system permissions. To do this, set the <TT CLASS="VARNAME" >unix_socket_permissions</TT > (and possibly <TT CLASS="VARNAME" >unix_socket_group</TT >) configuration parameters as described in <A HREF="runtime-config.html#RUNTIME-CONFIG-CONNECTION" >Section 16.4.2</A >. Or you could set the <TT CLASS="VARNAME" >unix_socket_directory</TT > configuration parameter to place the socket file in a suitably restricted directory. </P ><P > Setting file-system permissions only helps for Unix-socket connections. Local TCP/IP connections are not restricted by it; therefore, if you want to use file-system permissions for local security, remove the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >host ... 127.0.0.1 ...</TT > line from <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT >, or change it to a non-<TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > authentication method. </P ><P > <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > authentication is only suitable for TCP/IP connections if you trust every user on every machine that is allowed to connect to the server by the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT > lines that specify <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT >. It is seldom reasonable to use <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >trust</TT > for any TCP/IP connections other than those from <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >localhost</SPAN > (127.0.0.1). </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="AUTH-PASSWORD" >19.2.2. Password authentication</A ></H2 ><A NAME="AEN20166" ></A ><A NAME="AEN20168" ></A ><A NAME="AEN20170" ></A ><P > The password-based authentication methods are <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >md5</TT >, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >crypt</TT >, and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >password</TT >. These methods operate similarly except for the way that the password is sent across the connection. However, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >crypt</TT > does not allow encrypted passwords to be stored in <TT CLASS="STRUCTNAME" >pg_shadow</TT >. </P ><P > If you are at all concerned about password <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"sniffing"</SPAN > attacks then <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >md5</TT > is preferred, with <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >crypt</TT > a second choice if you must support pre-7.2 clients. Plain <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >password</TT > should especially be avoided for connections over the open Internet (unless you use <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >SSL</ACRONYM >, SSH, or other communications security wrappers around the connection). </P ><P > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > database passwords are separate from operating system user passwords. The password for each database user is stored in the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >pg_shadow</TT > system catalog table. Passwords can be managed with the SQL commands <A HREF="sql-createuser.html" ><I >CREATE USER</I ></A > and <A HREF="sql-alteruser.html" ><I >ALTER USER</I ></A >, e.g., <KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >CREATE USER foo WITH PASSWORD 'secret';</KBD >. By default, that is, if no password has been set up, the stored password is null and password authentication will always fail for that user. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="KERBEROS-AUTH" >19.2.3. Kerberos authentication</A ></H2 ><A NAME="AEN20193" ></A ><P > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Kerberos</SPAN > is an industry-standard secure authentication system suitable for distributed computing over a public network. A description of the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Kerberos</SPAN > system is far beyond the scope of this document; in full generality it can be quite complex (yet powerful). The <A HREF="http://www.nrl.navy.mil/CCS/people/kenh/kerberos-faq.html" TARGET="_top" >Kerberos <ACRONYM CLASS="ACRONYM" >FAQ</ACRONYM ></A > or <A HREF="ftp://athena-dist.mit.edu" TARGET="_top" >MIT Project Athena</A > can be a good starting point for exploration. Several sources for <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Kerberos</SPAN > distributions exist. </P ><P > While <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > supports both Kerberos 4 and Kerberos 5, only Kerberos 5 is recommended. Kerberos 4 is considered insecure and no longer recommended for general use. </P ><P > In order to use <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Kerberos</SPAN >, support for it must be enabled at build time. See <A HREF="installation.html" >Chapter 14</A > for more information. Both Kerberos 4 and 5 are supported, but only one version can be supported in any one build. </P ><P > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > operates like a normal Kerberos service. The name of the service principal is <TT CLASS="LITERAL" ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >servicename</I ></TT >/<TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >hostname</I ></TT >@<TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >realm</I ></TT ></TT >, where <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >servicename</I ></TT > is <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >postgres</TT > (unless a different service name was selected at configure time with <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >./configure --with-krb-srvnam=whatever</TT >). <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >hostname</I ></TT > is the fully qualified host name of the server machine. The service principal's realm is the preferred realm of the server machine. </P ><P > Client principals must have their <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > user name as their first component, for example <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >pgusername/otherstuff@realm</TT >. At present the realm of the client is not checked by <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN >; so if you have cross-realm authentication enabled, then any principal in any realm that can communicate with yours will be accepted. </P ><P > Make sure that your server key file is readable (and preferably only readable) by the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > server account. (See also <A HREF="runtime.html#POSTGRES-USER" >Section 16.1</A >.) The location of the key file is specified by the <A HREF="runtime-config.html#GUC-KRB-SERVER-KEYFILE" >krb_server_keyfile</A > configuration parameter. (See also <A HREF="runtime-config.html" >Section 16.4</A >.) The default is <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/etc/srvtab</TT > if you are using Kerberos 4 and <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/usr/local/pgsql/etc/krb5.keytab</TT > (or whichever directory was specified as <TT CLASS="VARNAME" >sysconfdir</TT > at build time) with Kerberos 5. </P ><P > To generate the keytab file, use for example (with version 5) </P><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" ><SAMP CLASS="PROMPT" >kadmin% </SAMP ><KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >ank -randkey postgres/server.my.domain.org</KBD > <SAMP CLASS="PROMPT" >kadmin% </SAMP ><KBD CLASS="USERINPUT" >ktadd -k krb5.keytab postgres/server.my.domain.org</KBD ></PRE ><P> Read the <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Kerberos</SPAN > documentation for details. </P ><P > When connecting to the database make sure you have a ticket for a principal matching the requested database user name. An example: For database user name <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >fred</TT >, both principal <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >fred@EXAMPLE.COM</TT > and <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >fred/users.example.com@EXAMPLE.COM</TT > can be used to authenticate to the database server. </P ><P > If you use <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >mod_auth_kerb</SPAN > from <A HREF="http://modauthkerb.sf.net" TARGET="_top" >http://modauthkerb.sf.net</A > and <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >mod_perl</SPAN > on your <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Apache</SPAN > web server, you can use <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >AuthType KerberosV5SaveCredentials</TT > with a <SPAN CLASS="APPLICATION" >mod_perl</SPAN > script. This gives secure database access over the web, no extra passwords required. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="AUTH-IDENT" >19.2.4. Ident-based authentication</A ></H2 ><A NAME="AEN20249" ></A ><P > The ident authentication method works by obtaining the client's operating system user name, then determining the allowed database user names using a map file that lists the permitted corresponding pairs of names. The determination of the client's user name is the security-critical point, and it works differently depending on the connection type. </P ><DIV CLASS="SECT3" ><H3 CLASS="SECT3" ><A NAME="AEN20252" >19.2.4.1. Ident Authentication over TCP/IP</A ></H3 ><P > The <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"Identification Protocol"</SPAN > is described in <I CLASS="CITETITLE" >RFC 1413</I >. Virtually every Unix-like operating system ships with an ident server that listens on TCP port 113 by default. The basic functionality of an ident server is to answer questions like <SPAN CLASS="QUOTE" >"What user initiated the connection that goes out of your port <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >X</I ></TT > and connects to my port <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >Y</I ></TT >?"</SPAN >. Since <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > knows both <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >X</I ></TT > and <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >Y</I ></TT > when a physical connection is established, it can interrogate the ident server on the host of the connecting client and could theoretically determine the operating system user for any given connection this way. </P ><P > The drawback of this procedure is that it depends on the integrity of the client: if the client machine is untrusted or compromised an attacker could run just about any program on port 113 and return any user name he chooses. This authentication method is therefore only appropriate for closed networks where each client machine is under tight control and where the database and system administrators operate in close contact. In other words, you must trust the machine running the ident server. Heed the warning: <A NAME="AEN20264" ></A ><TABLE BORDER="0" WIDTH="100%" CELLSPACING="0" CELLPADDING="0" CLASS="BLOCKQUOTE" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" VALIGN="TOP" > </TD ><TD VALIGN="TOP" ><P > The Identification Protocol is not intended as an authorization or access control protocol. </P ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" VALIGN="TOP" > </TD ></TR ><TR ><TD COLSPAN="2" ALIGN="RIGHT" VALIGN="TOP" >--<SPAN CLASS="ATTRIBUTION" >RFC 1413</SPAN ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" > </TD ></TR ></TABLE > </P ><P > Some ident servers have a nonstandard option that causes the returned user name to be encrypted, using a key that only the originating machine's administrator knows. This option <SPAN CLASS="emphasis" ><I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >must not</I ></SPAN > be used when using the ident server with <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN >, since <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > does not have any way to decrypt the returned string to determine the actual user name. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT3" ><H3 CLASS="SECT3" ><A NAME="AEN20271" >19.2.4.2. Ident Authentication over Local Sockets</A ></H3 ><P > On systems supporting <TT CLASS="SYMBOL" >SO_PEERCRED</TT > requests for Unix-domain sockets (currently <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >Linux</SPAN >, <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >FreeBSD</SPAN >, <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >NetBSD</SPAN >, <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >OpenBSD</SPAN >, and <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >BSD/OS</SPAN >), ident authentication can also be applied to local connections. In this case, no security risk is added by using ident authentication; indeed it is a preferable choice for local connections on such systems. </P ><P > On systems without <TT CLASS="SYMBOL" >SO_PEERCRED</TT > requests, ident authentication is only available for TCP/IP connections. As a work-around, it is possible to specify the <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >localhost</SPAN > address <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >127.0.0.1</SPAN > and make connections to this address. This method is trustworthy to the extent that you trust the local ident server. </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT3" ><H3 CLASS="SECT3" ><A NAME="AUTH-IDENT-MAPS" >19.2.4.3. Ident Maps</A ></H3 ><P > When using ident-based authentication, after having determined the name of the operating system user that initiated the connection, <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > checks whether that user is allowed to connect as the database user he is requesting to connect as. This is controlled by the ident map argument that follows the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >ident</TT > key word in the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT > file. There is a predefined ident map <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >sameuser</TT >, which allows any operating system user to connect as the database user of the same name (if the latter exists). Other maps must be created manually. </P ><P > Ident maps other than <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >sameuser</TT > are defined in the ident map file, which by default is named <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_ident.conf</TT ><A NAME="AEN20294" ></A > and is stored in the cluster's data directory. (It is possible to place the map file elsewhere, however; see the <A HREF="runtime-config.html#GUC-IDENT-FILE" >ident_file</A > configuration parameter.) The ident map file contains lines of the general form: </P><PRE CLASS="SYNOPSIS" ><TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >map-name</I ></TT > <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >ident-username</I ></TT > <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >database-username</I ></TT ></PRE ><P> Comments and whitespace are handled in the same way as in <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT >. The <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >map-name</I ></TT > is an arbitrary name that will be used to refer to this mapping in <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT >. The other two fields specify which operating system user is allowed to connect as which database user. The same <TT CLASS="REPLACEABLE" ><I >map-name</I ></TT > can be used repeatedly to specify more user-mappings within a single map. There is no restriction regarding how many database users a given operating system user may correspond to, nor vice versa. </P ><P > The <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_ident.conf</TT > file is read on start-up and when the main server process (<TT CLASS="COMMAND" >postmaster</TT >) receives a <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >SIGHUP</SPAN ><A NAME="AEN20309" ></A > signal. If you edit the file on an active system, you will need to signal the <TT CLASS="COMMAND" >postmaster</TT > (using <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >pg_ctl reload</TT > or <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >kill -HUP</TT >) to make it re-read the file. </P ><P > A <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_ident.conf</TT > file that could be used in conjunction with the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT > file in <A HREF="client-authentication.html#EXAMPLE-PG-HBA.CONF" >Example 19-1</A > is shown in <A HREF="auth-methods.html#EXAMPLE-PG-IDENT.CONF" >Example 19-2</A >. In this example setup, anyone logged in to a machine on the 192.168 network that does not have the Unix user name <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >bryanh</TT >, <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >ann</TT >, or <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >robert</TT > would not be granted access. Unix user <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >robert</TT > would only be allowed access when he tries to connect as <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >PostgreSQL</SPAN > user <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >bob</TT >, not as <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >robert</TT > or anyone else. <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >ann</TT > would only be allowed to connect as <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >ann</TT >. User <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >bryanh</TT > would be allowed to connect as either <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >bryanh</TT > himself or as <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >guest1</TT >. </P ><DIV CLASS="EXAMPLE" ><A NAME="EXAMPLE-PG-IDENT.CONF" ></A ><P ><B >Example 19-2. An example <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_ident.conf</TT > file</B ></P ><PRE CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING" ># MAPNAME IDENT-USERNAME PG-USERNAME omicron bryanh bryanh omicron ann ann # bob has user name robert on these machines omicron robert bob # bryanh can also connect as guest1 omicron bryanh guest1</PRE ></DIV ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT2" ><H2 CLASS="SECT2" ><A NAME="AUTH-PAM" >19.2.5. PAM authentication</A ></H2 ><A NAME="AEN20337" ></A ><P > This authentication method operates similarly to <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >password</TT > except that it uses PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) as the authentication mechanism. The default PAM service name is <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >postgresql</TT >. You can optionally supply your own service name after the <TT CLASS="LITERAL" >pam</TT > key word in the file <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >pg_hba.conf</TT >. PAM is used only to validate username/password pairs. Therefore the user must already exist in the database before PAM can be used for authentication. For more information about PAM, please read the <A HREF="http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/libs/pam/" TARGET="_top" > <SPAN CLASS="PRODUCTNAME" >Linux-PAM</SPAN > Page</A > and the <A HREF="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/pam/" TARGET="_top" > <SPAN CLASS="SYSTEMITEM" >Solaris</SPAN > PAM Page</A >. </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication-problems.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Client Authentication</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="client-authentication.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Authentication problems</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >