Thread: Disallow execution of shell commands from psql

Hi!
Happy new (gregorian calendar) year!

Somehow related to the proposal of having a `psql --idle` option, is there a way to disallow the command `\!` (and anything of the likes in psql?

Sure, I can set the SHELL env var at run-time, but I still want to have postgres user to be a normal user, with its shell etc, which means it can change this SHELL setting somewhere.

Any tip?

On Tue, Jan 10, 2023 at 07:01:24PM +0100, Wiwwo Staff wrote:
> Hi!
> Happy new (gregorian calendar) year!
> 
> Somehow related to the proposal of having a `psql --idle` option, is there
> a way to disallow the command `\!` (and anything of the likes in psql?
> 
> Sure, I can set the SHELL env var at run-time, but I still want to have
> postgres user to be a normal user, with its shell etc, which means it can
> change this SHELL setting somewhere.

As far as I know, it's not possible. Why is that a problem though?

\! will run command as the user that ran psql. So it's not a security
issue. What's the problem then?

Best regards,

depesz