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Thread: Simple Text Field Encryption

Simple Text Field Encryption

From
"gcj"
Date:
I'm looking for a simple way to encrypt the contents of a text field in one
of my Postgres tables.  I'm not looking for anything that is bullet-proof --
just something that would mask the field's contents from a casual user
looking at the table via pgAdminIII or any other client application / query.

I'm hoping there is a built-in Postgres function that I could call from my
java web application to encrypt/mask a text string and then store the
encrypted value in the DB.  Thereafter, I would be able to query the
encrypted field, de-crypt back to the original value, etc.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

BTW...I'm using Postgres v8.3 on Windows Server

Re: Simple Text Field Encryption

From
Bruce Hyatt
Date:
--- On Tue, 10/21/08, gcj <gauss21@comcast.net> wrote:

> From: gcj <gauss21@comcast.net>
> Subject: [NOVICE] Simple Text Field Encryption
> To: pgsql-novice@postgresql.org
> Date: Tuesday, October 21, 2008, 1:11 PM
> I'm looking for a simple way to encrypt the contents of
> a text field in one
> of my Postgres tables.  I'm not looking for anything
> that is bullet-proof --
> just something that would mask the field's contents
> from a casual user
> looking at the table via pgAdminIII or any other client
> application / query.
>
> I'm hoping there is a built-in Postgres function that I
> could call from my
> java web application to encrypt/mask a text string and then
> store the
> encrypted value in the DB.  Thereafter, I would be able to
> query the
> encrypted field, de-crypt back to the original value, etc.

Since you're using java, maybe there's a way to use a JPasswordField object?

Bruce

Re: Simple Text Field Encryption

From
"Damian Carey"
Date:
On Wed, Oct 22, 2008 at 4:11 AM, gcj <gauss21@comcast.net> wrote:
> I'm looking for a simple way to encrypt the contents of a text field in one
> of my Postgres tables.  I'm not looking for anything that is bullet-proof --
> just something that would mask the field's contents from a casual user
> looking at the table via pgAdminIII or any other client application / query.
>
> I'm hoping there is a built-in Postgres function that I could call from my
> java web application to encrypt/mask a text string and then store the
> encrypted value in the DB.  Thereafter, I would be able to query the
> encrypted field, de-crypt back to the original value, etc.
>
> Any suggestions would be appreciated.
>

To handle it Java side you could check out this link ...
http://timarcher.com/?q=node/51

Note the comments following the article warn of the limitations of
this technique. However, it does seem to be adequate for what you have
requested.

I'm a postgres novice, but my guess is that if your Java app could use
postgres to crypt/decrypt that internally then the
KGB/CIA/Stasi/Greenpeace/Amnesty etc could use pgAdminIII (or
whatever) to get postgres to decrypt it just as easily.

HTH,
-Damian