Thread: LISTEN/NOTIFY Security and the docs
Hi All, I just realized that anyone can listen for notifications (using listen) so long as they know the "channel" name. This means that a user could receive and view the payload for another user. Perhaps it would be good to note this in the documentation (i.e., there should be no expectation of privacy/security when using listen/notify, so any user that can connect to a database could issue and receive notifications for any channel.) thanks -- Chander Ganesan Open Technology Group, Inc. 11010 Lake Grove Blvd Ste. 100-307 Morrisville, NC 27560 919-463-0999/877-258-8987 http://www.otg-nc.com
On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Chander Ganesan <chander@otg-nc.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > I just realized that anyone can listen for notifications (using listen) so > long as they know the "channel" name. This means that a user could receive > and view the payload for another user. > > Perhaps it would be good to note this in the documentation (i.e., there > should be no expectation of privacy/security when using listen/notify, so > any user that can connect to a database could issue and receive > notifications for any channel.) Might be worth a note, yes. The lack of a note really should tell you that it's a broadcast, but it wouldn't hurt to have an extra one. Want to prepare a patch? -- Magnus Hagander Me: http://www.hagander.net/ Work: http://www.redpill-linpro.com/
On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 01:03:18PM +0200, Magnus Hagander wrote: > On Fri, May 18, 2012 at 5:08 PM, Chander Ganesan <chander@otg-nc.com> wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > I just realized that anyone can listen for notifications (using listen) so > > long as they know the "channel" name. This means that a user could receive > > and view the payload for another user. > > > > Perhaps it would be good to note this in the documentation (i.e., there > > should be no expectation of privacy/security when using listen/notify, so > > any user that can connect to a database could issue and receive > > notifications for any channel.) > > Might be worth a note, yes. The lack of a note really should tell you > that it's a broadcast, but it wouldn't hurt to have an extra one. > > Want to prepare a patch? Attached documentation patch applied. -- Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com + It's impossible for everything to be true. +