Re: drupal.org MySQL database issues - Mailing list pgsql-advocacy

Gavin M. Roy wrote:
> There is something to be said though with the security of not allowing
> the daemon to alter pg_hba.conf.

You make it so only a superuser can insert into the table (it would be a
pg_ table). Further only a super user could call the pg_reload function
that we already allow.

   What I think would work is a two step
> auth process that uses a pg_hba table then falls back to pg_hba.conf if
> there is no match.  This keeps the complete security of preventing
> compromised database from altering the text file.
>
> Thoughts?
>

Well consider this :). If they can alter the pg_hba.conf file, it
doesn't matter what happens next (or before for that matter).

Joshua D. Drake



> Gavin
>
> On 5/17/07, *Joshua D. Drake* <jd@commandprompt.com
> <mailto:jd@commandprompt.com>> wrote:
>
>     Magnus Hagander wrote:
>      > Gavin M. Roy wrote:
>      >> I think for one, mysql uses tables for all of its access control.
>      >> Coding plesk/cpanel to modify pg_hba.conf and rehup postgres
>     would take
>      >> a bit more work, I would imagine.
>      >
>      > In a lot of environments, it'd certainly be impossible, at least
>     until
>      > we make it possible to edit the config files remote... (oops,
>     recap of
>      > endless amounts of discussions on letting pgadmin do that..)
>
>     Well more to the point. There really is zero reason why we can't have a
>     table representation of pg_hba_conf that is the pg_hba.conf file that
>     has triggers that right out the file.
>
>
>      >
>      >> Do we really want to pursue making PostgreSQL easier to admin
>     for the
>      >> non-system admin?  Cpanel and plesk and like tools are pretty
>     far down
>      >> the list of important things to support or code for.
>      >
>      > If we want to make inroads into shared-hosting environments, it
>     would
>      > certainly help...
>
>     It is not just shared hosting... dedicated hosting starts as little as
>     69.00 with Cpanel :)...
>
>     Note that I am not advocating making it easier for Cpanel. I am just
>     making a point that it is not limited to shared hosting.
>
>     I am however advocating that it is pretty dumb that our conf files are
>     *required* as a little text file on the filesystem and can not be
>     managed via the database.
>
>     Joshua D. Drake
>
>
>
>      >
>      > //Magnus
>      >
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