non-superusers are allowed to drop the replication user, but are not allowed to alter or even create them, is that ok? - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Hi All,

While working on one of the internal projects I noticed that currently in Postgres, we do not allow normal users to alter attributes of the replication user. However we do allow normal users to drop replication users or to even rename it using the alter command. Is that behaviour ok? If yes, can someone please help me understand how and why this is okay.

Here is an example illustrating this behaviour:

supusr@postgres=# create user repusr with password 'repusr' replication;
CREATE ROLE

supusr@postgres=# create user nonsu with password 'nonsu' createrole createdb;
CREATE ROLE

supusr@postgres=# \c postgres nonsu;
You are now connected to database "postgres" as user "nonsu".

nonsu@postgres=> alter user repusr nocreatedb;
ERROR:  42501: must be superuser to alter replication roles or change replication attribute

nonsu@postgres=> alter user repusr rename to refusr;
ALTER ROLE

nonsu@postgres=> drop user refusr;
DROP ROLE

nonsu@postgres=> create user repusr2 with password 'repusr2' replication;
ERROR:  42501: must be superuser to create replication users