Thread: postgres database user account
Hoping someone out there can answer this general question(s).... I am having to justify having access to the "postgres" database user account to do DBA type work..... Is there any specific items that require the postgres database user account to run? Can any general user (with superuser permission) basically do what this postgres account does? thanks, Maria Wilson Nasa/Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23681
Yes, you can create a role that is a superuser that should be able to do internal work: CREATE ROLE myuser; ALTER ROLE myuser WITH SUPERUSER INHERIT CREATEROLE CREATEDB LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypassword' VALID UNTIL 'infinity'; If you are talking about the operating system account named postgres, then this is a different question. -----Original Message----- From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Maria L. Wilson Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:15 PM To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Subject: [ADMIN] postgres database user account Hoping someone out there can answer this general question(s).... I am having to justify having access to the "postgres" database user account to do DBA type work..... Is there any specific items that require the postgres database user account to run? Can any general user (with superuser permission) basically do what this postgres account does? thanks, Maria Wilson Nasa/Langley Research Center Hampton, Virginia 23681 -- Sent via pgsql-admin mailing list (pgsql-admin@postgresql.org) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-admin
ok - thanks that makes sense.... so what about the operating system account that is different? What we are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log into it. Do you think that will cause problems? thanks again - Maria Plugge, Joe R. wrote: > Yes, you can create a role that is a superuser that should be able to do internal work: > > CREATE ROLE myuser; > ALTER ROLE myuser WITH SUPERUSER INHERIT CREATEROLE CREATEDB LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypassword' VALID UNTIL 'infinity'; > > If you are talking about the operating system account named postgres, then this is a different question. > > -----Original Message----- > From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Maria L. Wilson > Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:15 PM > To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org > Subject: [ADMIN] postgres database user account > > Hoping someone out there can answer this general question(s).... I am > having to justify having access to the "postgres" database user account > to do DBA type work..... > Is there any specific items that require the postgres database user > account to run? > > Can any general user (with superuser permission) basically do what this > postgres account does? > > thanks, Maria Wilson > Nasa/Langley Research Center > Hampton, Virginia 23681 > >
On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 16:02 -0400, Maria L. Wilson wrote: > ok - thanks that makes sense.... > > so what about the operating system account that is different? What we > are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users > sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log > into it. Do you think that will cause problems? You should treat the postgres account like root. In reality nobody should be logging in as postgres on the OS except for extremely specific purposes. Joshua D. Drake -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering
If the user is allowed to become (sudo - postgres) they can stop, start, the database and then change the pg_hba.conf, createdunrestricted access into the database, even from remote machines. Typically on our systems, we do not allow usersto log into the actual machine, rather create roles in the database according to their needs and then have them comein from another machine. This keeps all sorts of undesirable behavior (zcat, grep, cut, awk, programs running etc) offof your database machine. -----Original Message----- From: Maria L. Wilson [mailto:Maria.L.Wilson-1@nasa.gov] Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 3:03 PM To: Plugge, Joe R. Cc: Wilson, Maria Louise (LARC-E301)[SCIENCE SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS]; pgsql-admin@postgresql.org Subject: Re: [ADMIN] postgres database user account ok - thanks that makes sense.... so what about the operating system account that is different? What we are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log into it. Do you think that will cause problems? thanks again - Maria Plugge, Joe R. wrote: > Yes, you can create a role that is a superuser that should be able to do internal work: > > CREATE ROLE myuser; > ALTER ROLE myuser WITH SUPERUSER INHERIT CREATEROLE CREATEDB LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypassword' VALID UNTIL 'infinity'; > > If you are talking about the operating system account named postgres, then this is a different question. > > -----Original Message----- > From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Maria L. Wilson > Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:15 PM > To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org > Subject: [ADMIN] postgres database user account > > Hoping someone out there can answer this general question(s).... I am > having to justify having access to the "postgres" database user account > to do DBA type work..... > Is there any specific items that require the postgres database user > account to run? > > Can any general user (with superuser permission) basically do what this > postgres account does? > > thanks, Maria Wilson > Nasa/Langley Research Center > Hampton, Virginia 23681 > >
that sounds similar to what we are trying to accomplish. Looks like what we need to do is use the sudo at the OS level - and remove the postgres db user account altogether.... giving specific users the privs (or create roles) that accomplish what they need. Plugge, Joe R. wrote: > If the user is allowed to become (sudo - postgres) they can stop, start, the database and then change the pg_hba.conf,created unrestricted access into the database, even from remote machines. Typically on our systems, we do notallow users to log into the actual machine, rather create roles in the database according to their needs and then havethem come in from another machine. This keeps all sorts of undesirable behavior (zcat, grep, cut, awk, programs runningetc) off of your database machine. > > -----Original Message----- > From: Maria L. Wilson [mailto:Maria.L.Wilson-1@nasa.gov] > Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 3:03 PM > To: Plugge, Joe R. > Cc: Wilson, Maria Louise (LARC-E301)[SCIENCE SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS]; pgsql-admin@postgresql.org > Subject: Re: [ADMIN] postgres database user account > > ok - thanks that makes sense.... > > so what about the operating system account that is different? What we > are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users > sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log > into it. Do you think that will cause problems? > > thanks again - Maria > > Plugge, Joe R. wrote: > >> Yes, you can create a role that is a superuser that should be able to do internal work: >> >> CREATE ROLE myuser; >> ALTER ROLE myuser WITH SUPERUSER INHERIT CREATEROLE CREATEDB LOGIN PASSWORD 'mypassword' VALID UNTIL 'infinity'; >> >> If you are talking about the operating system account named postgres, then this is a different question. >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org [mailto:pgsql-admin-owner@postgresql.org] On Behalf Of Maria L. Wilson >> Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 2:15 PM >> To: pgsql-admin@postgresql.org >> Subject: [ADMIN] postgres database user account >> >> Hoping someone out there can answer this general question(s).... I am >> having to justify having access to the "postgres" database user account >> to do DBA type work..... >> Is there any specific items that require the postgres database user >> account to run? >> >> Can any general user (with superuser permission) basically do what this >> postgres account does? >> >> thanks, Maria Wilson >> Nasa/Langley Research Center >> Hampton, Virginia 23681 >> >> >>
"Maria L. Wilson" <Maria.L.Wilson-1@nasa.gov> writes:
> so what about the operating system account that is different? What we
> are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users
> sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log
> into it. Do you think that will cause problems?
No, that's pretty standard. RPM installations for example have never
assigned a password to the postgres OS account, so it will behave in
exactly that way.
Usually the only things you need the OS account for are to start/stop
the server and update its outside-the-database configuration files,
such as postgresql.conf.
regards, tom lane
and what would be those "extremely specific purposes"?
Joshua D. Drake wrote:
Joshua D. Drake wrote:
On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 16:02 -0400, Maria L. Wilson wrote:ok - thanks that makes sense.... so what about the operating system account that is different? What we are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log into it. Do you think that will cause problems?You should treat the postgres account like root. In reality nobody should be logging in as postgres on the OS except for extremely specific purposes. Joshua D. Drake
"Maria L. Wilson" <Maria.L.Wilson-1@nasa.gov> writes:
> that sounds similar to what we are trying to accomplish. Looks like
> what we need to do is use the sudo at the OS level - and remove the
> postgres db user account altogether.... giving specific users the privs
> (or create roles) that accomplish what they need.
You can't remove the postgres DB account; it owns the core system
catalogs, functions, etc. In any case, understand that any superuser
database account is as powerful as any other. Giving DBAs superuser
accounts other than postgres is probably good just from an
administrative standpoint, but it won't reduce their capability to
screw things up.
If you're using a PG version recent enough to have a "createrole"
account attribute as distinct from "superuser", look into how much of
your admin work can be done with "createrole" accounts. Those are
a lot weaker than full superuser, but still are enough for many ordinary
admin tasks (such as managing everyday-user accounts).
regards, tom lane
El mié, 30-06-2010 a las 16:15 -0400, Maria L. Wilson escribió: > that sounds similar to what we are trying to accomplish. Looks like > what we need to do is use the sudo at the OS level - and remove the > postgres db user account altogether.... giving specific users the privs > (or create roles) that accomplish what they need. > or only allow IP connections and remove the sock LOCAL and remove ALL of pg_hba Usuaris -- Redards, Gilberto Castillo Edificio Beijing. Miramar Trade Center. Etecsa. Miramar, La Haban.Cuba. --- This message was processed by Kaspersky Mail Gateway 5.6.28/RELEASE running at host imx3.etecsa.cu Visit our web-site: <http://www.kaspersky.com>, <http://www.viruslist.com>
"Maria L. Wilson" <Maria.L.Wilson-1@nasa.gov> wrote: > What we are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only > allowing users sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be > able to directly log into it. Do you think that will cause > problems? It's what we do. We use ident logins from this account, and use it for maintenance jobs scheduled through crontab, such as database vacuum and some backup related processes. It works well for us, and we figure that if someone can run as root, they can trash the database anyway, so we don't think we're opening up any security holes with it. -Kevin
On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 16:13 -0400, Maria L. Wilson wrote: > and what would be those "extremely specific purposes"? Needed to modify files that are within the cluster directory (postgresql.conf) or needing to stop/start PostgreSQL which could be done with sudo without allowing login. Sincerely, Joshua D. Drake > > -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering
On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 16:02 -0400, Maria L. Wilson wrote: > ok - thanks that makes sense.... > > so what about the operating system account that is different? What we > are planning on doing with the OS acct (postgres) is only allowing users > sudo ability to this account. Nobody should be able to directly log > into it. Do you think that will cause problems? You should treat the postgres account like root. In reality nobody should be logging in as postgres on the OS except for extremely specific purposes. Joshua D. Drake -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering
On Wed, 2010-06-30 at 16:13 -0400, Maria L. Wilson wrote: > and what would be those "extremely specific purposes"? Needed to modify files that are within the cluster directory (postgresql.conf) or needing to stop/start PostgreSQL which could be done with sudo without allowing login. Sincerely, Joshua D. Drake > > -- PostgreSQL.org Major Contributor Command Prompt, Inc: http://www.commandprompt.com/ - 509.416.6579 Consulting, Training, Support, Custom Development, Engineering