From 6eb9c5a5657d1fe77b55cc261450f3538d35a94d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Daniel Baumann Date: Sat, 4 May 2024 14:19:15 +0200 Subject: Adding upstream version 13.4. Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann --- doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml | 638 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 638 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml (limited to 'doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml') diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml new file mode 100644 index 0000000..829decd --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/src/sgml/user-manag.sgml @@ -0,0 +1,638 @@ + + + + Database Roles + + + PostgreSQL manages database access permissions + using the concept of roles. A role can be thought of as + either a database user, or a group of database users, depending on how + the role is set up. Roles can own database objects (for example, tables + and functions) and can assign privileges on those objects to other roles to + control who has access to which objects. Furthermore, it is possible + to grant membership in a role to another role, thus + allowing the member role to use privileges assigned to another role. + + + + The concept of roles subsumes the concepts of users and + groups. In PostgreSQL versions + before 8.1, users and groups were distinct kinds of entities, but now + there are only roles. Any role can act as a user, a group, or both. + + + + This chapter describes how to create and manage roles. + More information about the effects of role privileges on various + database objects can be found in . + + + + Database Roles + + + role + + + + user + + + + CREATE ROLE + + + + DROP ROLE + + + + Database roles are conceptually completely separate from + operating system users. In practice it might be convenient to + maintain a correspondence, but this is not required. Database roles + are global across a database cluster installation (and not + per individual database). To create a role use the SQL command: + +CREATE ROLE name; + + name follows the rules for SQL + identifiers: either unadorned without special characters, or + double-quoted. (In practice, you will usually want to add additional + options, such as LOGIN, to the command. More details appear + below.) To remove an existing role, use the analogous + command: + +DROP ROLE name; + + + + + createuser + + + + dropuser + + + + For convenience, the programs + and are provided as wrappers + around these SQL commands that can be called from the shell command + line: + +createuser name +dropuser name + + + + + To determine the set of existing roles, examine the pg_roles + system catalog, for example + +SELECT rolname FROM pg_roles; + + The program's \du meta-command + is also useful for listing the existing roles. + + + + In order to bootstrap the database system, a freshly initialized + system always contains one predefined role. This role is always + a superuser, and by default (unless altered when running + initdb) it will have the same name as the + operating system user that initialized the database + cluster. Customarily, this role will be named + postgres. In order to create more roles you + first have to connect as this initial role. + + + + Every connection to the database server is made using the name of some + particular role, and this role determines the initial access privileges for + commands issued in that connection. + The role name to use for a particular database + connection is indicated by the client that is initiating the + connection request in an application-specific fashion. For example, + the psql program uses the + command line option to indicate the role to + connect as. Many applications assume the name of the current + operating system user by default (including + createuser and psql). Therefore it + is often convenient to maintain a naming correspondence between + roles and operating system users. + + + + The set of database roles a given client connection can connect as + is determined by the client authentication setup, as explained in + . (Thus, a client is not + limited to connect as the role matching + its operating system user, just as a person's login name + need not match his or her real name.) Since the role + identity determines the set of privileges available to a connected + client, it is important to carefully configure privileges when setting up + a multiuser environment. + + + + + Role Attributes + + + A database role can have a number of attributes that define its + privileges and interact with the client authentication system. + + + + login privilegelogin privilege + + + Only roles that have the LOGIN attribute can be used + as the initial role name for a database connection. A role with + the LOGIN attribute can be considered the same + as a database user. To create a role with login privilege, + use either: + +CREATE ROLE name LOGIN; +CREATE USER name; + + (CREATE USER is equivalent to CREATE ROLE + except that CREATE USER includes LOGIN by + default, while CREATE ROLE does not.) + + + + + + superuser statussuperuser + + + A database superuser bypasses all permission checks, except the right + to log in. This is a dangerous privilege and should not be used + carelessly; it is best to do most of your work as a role that is not a + superuser. To create a new database superuser, use CREATE + ROLE name SUPERUSER. You must do + this as a role that is already a superuser. + + + + + + database creationdatabaseprivilege to create + + + A role must be explicitly given permission to create databases + (except for superusers, since those bypass all permission + checks). To create such a role, use CREATE ROLE + name CREATEDB. + + + + + + role creationroleprivilege to create + + + A role must be explicitly given permission to create more roles + (except for superusers, since those bypass all permission + checks). To create such a role, use CREATE ROLE + name CREATEROLE. + A role with CREATEROLE privilege can alter and drop + other roles, too, as well as grant or revoke membership in them. + However, to create, alter, drop, or change membership of a + superuser role, superuser status is required; + CREATEROLE is insufficient for that. + + + + + + initiating replicationroleprivilege to initiate replication + + + A role must explicitly be given permission to initiate streaming + replication (except for superusers, since those bypass all permission + checks). A role used for streaming replication must + have LOGIN permission as well. To create such a role, use + CREATE ROLE name REPLICATION + LOGIN. + + + + + + passwordpassword + + + A password is only significant if the client authentication + method requires the user to supply a password when connecting + to the database. The and + authentication methods + make use of passwords. Database passwords are separate from + operating system passwords. Specify a password upon role + creation with CREATE ROLE + name PASSWORD 'string'. + + + + + + A role's attributes can be modified after creation with + ALTER ROLE.ALTER ROLE + See the reference pages for the + and commands for details. + + + + + It is good practice to create a role that has the CREATEDB + and CREATEROLE privileges, but is not a superuser, and then + use this role for all routine management of databases and roles. This + approach avoids the dangers of operating as a superuser for tasks that + do not really require it. + + + + + A role can also have role-specific defaults for many of the run-time + configuration settings described in . For example, if for some reason you + want to disable index scans (hint: not a good idea) anytime you + connect, you can use: + +ALTER ROLE myname SET enable_indexscan TO off; + + This will save the setting (but not set it immediately). In + subsequent connections by this role it will appear as though + SET enable_indexscan TO off had been executed + just before the session started. + You can still alter this setting during the session; it will only + be the default. To remove a role-specific default setting, use + ALTER ROLE rolename RESET varname. + Note that role-specific defaults attached to roles without + LOGIN privilege are fairly useless, since they will never + be invoked. + + + + + Role Membership + + + rolemembership in + + + + It is frequently convenient to group users together to ease + management of privileges: that way, privileges can be granted to, or + revoked from, a group as a whole. In PostgreSQL + this is done by creating a role that represents the group, and then + granting membership in the group role to individual user + roles. + + + + To set up a group role, first create the role: + +CREATE ROLE name; + + Typically a role being used as a group would not have the LOGIN + attribute, though you can set it if you wish. + + + + Once the group role exists, you can add and remove members using the + and + commands: + +GRANT group_role TO role1, ... ; +REVOKE group_role FROM role1, ... ; + + You can grant membership to other group roles, too (since there isn't + really any distinction between group roles and non-group roles). The + database will not let you set up circular membership loops. Also, + it is not permitted to grant membership in a role to + PUBLIC. + + + + The members of a group role can use the privileges of the role in two + ways. First, every member of a group can explicitly do + to + temporarily become the group role. In this state, the + database session has access to the privileges of the group role rather + than the original login role, and any database objects created are + considered owned by the group role not the login role. Second, member + roles that have the INHERIT attribute automatically have use + of the privileges of roles of which they are members, including any + privileges inherited by those roles. + As an example, suppose we have done: + +CREATE ROLE joe LOGIN INHERIT; +CREATE ROLE admin NOINHERIT; +CREATE ROLE wheel NOINHERIT; +GRANT admin TO joe; +GRANT wheel TO admin; + + Immediately after connecting as role joe, a database + session will have use of privileges granted directly to joe + plus any privileges granted to admin, because joe + inherits admin's privileges. However, privileges + granted to wheel are not available, because even though + joe is indirectly a member of wheel, the + membership is via admin which has the NOINHERIT + attribute. After: + +SET ROLE admin; + + the session would have use of only those privileges granted to + admin, and not those granted to joe. After: + +SET ROLE wheel; + + the session would have use of only those privileges granted to + wheel, and not those granted to either joe + or admin. The original privilege state can be restored + with any of: + +SET ROLE joe; +SET ROLE NONE; +RESET ROLE; + + + + + + The SET ROLE command always allows selecting any role + that the original login role is directly or indirectly a member of. + Thus, in the above example, it is not necessary to become + admin before becoming wheel. + + + + + + In the SQL standard, there is a clear distinction between users and roles, + and users do not automatically inherit privileges while roles do. This + behavior can be obtained in PostgreSQL by giving + roles being used as SQL roles the INHERIT attribute, while + giving roles being used as SQL users the NOINHERIT attribute. + However, PostgreSQL defaults to giving all roles + the INHERIT attribute, for backward compatibility with pre-8.1 + releases in which users always had use of permissions granted to groups + they were members of. + + + + + The role attributes LOGIN, SUPERUSER, + CREATEDB, and CREATEROLE can be thought of as + special privileges, but they are never inherited as ordinary privileges + on database objects are. You must actually SET ROLE to a + specific role having one of these attributes in order to make use of + the attribute. Continuing the above example, we might choose to + grant CREATEDB and CREATEROLE to the + admin role. Then a session connecting as role joe + would not have these privileges immediately, only after doing + SET ROLE admin. + + + + + + + To destroy a group role, use : + +DROP ROLE name; + + Any memberships in the group role are automatically revoked (but the + member roles are not otherwise affected). + + + + + Dropping Roles + + + Because roles can own database objects and can hold privileges + to access other objects, dropping a role is often not just a matter of a + quick . Any objects owned by the role must + first be dropped or reassigned to other owners; and any permissions + granted to the role must be revoked. + + + + Ownership of objects can be transferred one at a time + using ALTER commands, for example: + +ALTER TABLE bobs_table OWNER TO alice; + + Alternatively, the command can be + used to reassign ownership of all objects owned by the role-to-be-dropped + to a single other role. Because REASSIGN OWNED cannot access + objects in other databases, it is necessary to run it in each database + that contains objects owned by the role. (Note that the first + such REASSIGN OWNED will change the ownership of any + shared-across-databases objects, that is databases or tablespaces, that + are owned by the role-to-be-dropped.) + + + + Once any valuable objects have been transferred to new owners, any + remaining objects owned by the role-to-be-dropped can be dropped with + the command. Again, this command cannot + access objects in other databases, so it is necessary to run it in each + database that contains objects owned by the role. Also, DROP + OWNED will not drop entire databases or tablespaces, so it is + necessary to do that manually if the role owns any databases or + tablespaces that have not been transferred to new owners. + + + + DROP OWNED also takes care of removing any privileges granted + to the target role for objects that do not belong to it. + Because REASSIGN OWNED does not touch such objects, it's + typically necessary to run both REASSIGN OWNED + and DROP OWNED (in that order!) to fully remove the + dependencies of a role to be dropped. + + + + In short then, the most general recipe for removing a role that has been + used to own objects is: + + +REASSIGN OWNED BY doomed_role TO successor_role; +DROP OWNED BY doomed_role; +-- repeat the above commands in each database of the cluster +DROP ROLE doomed_role; + + + + When not all owned objects are to be transferred to the same successor + owner, it's best to handle the exceptions manually and then perform + the above steps to mop up. + + + + If DROP ROLE is attempted while dependent objects still + remain, it will issue messages identifying which objects need to be + reassigned or dropped. + + + + + Default Roles + + + role + + + + PostgreSQL provides a set of default roles + which provide access to certain, commonly needed, privileged capabilities + and information. Administrators can GRANT these roles to users and/or + other roles in their environment, providing those users with access to + the specified capabilities and information. + + + + The default roles are described in . + Note that the specific permissions for each of the default roles may + change in the future as additional capabilities are added. Administrators + should monitor the release notes for changes. + + + + Default Roles + + + + + + Role + Allowed Access + + + + + pg_read_all_settings + Read all configuration variables, even those normally visible only to + superusers. + + + pg_read_all_stats + Read all pg_stat_* views and use various statistics related extensions, + even those normally visible only to superusers. + + + pg_stat_scan_tables + Execute monitoring functions that may take ACCESS SHARE locks on tables, + potentially for a long time. + + + pg_monitor + Read/execute various monitoring views and functions. + This role is a member of pg_read_all_settings, + pg_read_all_stats and + pg_stat_scan_tables. + + + pg_signal_backend + Signal another backend to cancel a query or terminate its session. + + + pg_read_server_files + Allow reading files from any location the database can access on the server with COPY and + other file-access functions. + + + pg_write_server_files + Allow writing to files in any location the database can access on the server with COPY and + other file-access functions. + + + pg_execute_server_program + Allow executing programs on the database server as the user the database runs as with + COPY and other functions which allow executing a server-side program. + + + +
+ + + The pg_monitor, pg_read_all_settings, + pg_read_all_stats and pg_stat_scan_tables + roles are intended to allow administrators to easily configure a role for the + purpose of monitoring the database server. They grant a set of common privileges + allowing the role to read various useful configuration settings, statistics and + other system information normally restricted to superusers. + + + + The pg_signal_backend role is intended to allow + administrators to enable trusted, but non-superuser, roles to send signals + to other backends. Currently this role enables sending of signals for + canceling a query on another backend or terminating its session. A user + granted this role cannot however send signals to a backend owned by a + superuser. See . + + + + The pg_read_server_files, pg_write_server_files and + pg_execute_server_program roles are intended to allow administrators to have + trusted, but non-superuser, roles which are able to access files and run programs on the + database server as the user the database runs as. As these roles are able to access any file on + the server file system, they bypass all database-level permission checks when accessing files + directly and they could be used to gain superuser-level access, therefore + great care should be taken when granting these roles to users. + + + + Care should be taken when granting these roles to ensure they are only used where + needed and with the understanding that these roles grant access to privileged + information. + + + + Administrators can grant access to these roles to users using the + command, for example: + + +GRANT pg_signal_backend TO admin_user; + + + + + + + Function Security + + + Functions, triggers and row-level security policies allow users to insert + code into the backend server that other users might execute + unintentionally. Hence, these mechanisms permit users to Trojan + horse others with relative ease. The strongest protection is tight + control over who can define objects. Where that is infeasible, write + queries referring only to objects having trusted owners. Remove + from search_path the public schema and any other schemas + that permit untrusted users to create objects. + + + + Functions run inside the backend + server process with the operating system permissions of the + database server daemon. If the programming language + used for the function allows unchecked memory accesses, it is + possible to change the server's internal data structures. + Hence, among many other things, such functions can circumvent any + system access controls. Function languages that allow such access + are considered untrusted, and + PostgreSQL allows only superusers to + create functions written in those languages. + + + + -- cgit v1.2.3