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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>21.3. Authentication Methods</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="auth-username-maps.html" title="21.2. User Name Maps" /><link rel="next" href="auth-trust.html" title="21.4. Trust Authentication" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">21.3. Authentication Methods</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="auth-username-maps.html" title="21.2. User Name Maps">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="client-authentication.html" title="Chapter 21. Client Authentication">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 21. Client Authentication</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="auth-trust.html" title="21.4. Trust Authentication">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="sect1" id="AUTH-METHODS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">21.3. Authentication Methods</h2></div></div></div><p>
   <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> provides various methods for
   authenticating users:

   </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-trust.html" title="21.4. Trust Authentication">Trust authentication</a>, which
      simply trusts that users are who they say they are.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-password.html" title="21.5. Password Authentication">Password authentication</a>, which
      requires that users send a password.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="gssapi-auth.html" title="21.6. GSSAPI Authentication">GSSAPI authentication</a>, which
      relies on a GSSAPI-compatible security library.  Typically this is
      used to access an authentication server such as a Kerberos or
      Microsoft Active Directory server.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="sspi-auth.html" title="21.7. SSPI Authentication">SSPI authentication</a>, which
      uses a Windows-specific protocol similar to GSSAPI.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-ident.html" title="21.8. Ident Authentication">Ident authentication</a>, which
      relies on an <span class="quote"><span class="quote">Identification Protocol</span></span>
      (<a class="ulink" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1413" target="_top">RFC 1413</a>)
      service on the client's machine.  (On local Unix-socket connections,
      this is treated as peer authentication.)
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-peer.html" title="21.9. Peer Authentication">Peer authentication</a>, which
      relies on operating system facilities to identify the process at the
      other end of a local connection.  This is not supported for remote
      connections.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-ldap.html" title="21.10. LDAP Authentication">LDAP authentication</a>, which
      relies on an LDAP authentication server.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-radius.html" title="21.11. RADIUS Authentication">RADIUS authentication</a>, which
      relies on a RADIUS authentication server.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-cert.html" title="21.12. Certificate Authentication">Certificate authentication</a>, which
      requires an SSL connection and authenticates users by checking the
      SSL certificate they send.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-pam.html" title="21.13. PAM Authentication">PAM authentication</a>, which
      relies on a PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) library.
     </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
      <a class="link" href="auth-bsd.html" title="21.14. BSD Authentication">BSD authentication</a>, which
      relies on the BSD Authentication framework (currently available
      only on OpenBSD).
     </p></li></ul></div><p>
  </p><p>
   Peer authentication is usually recommendable for local connections,
   though trust authentication might be sufficient in some circumstances.
   Password authentication is the easiest choice for remote connections.
   All the other options require some kind of external security
   infrastructure (usually an authentication server or a certificate
   authority for issuing SSL certificates), or are platform-specific.
  </p><p>
   The following sections describe each of these authentication methods
   in more detail.
  </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="auth-username-maps.html" title="21.2. User Name Maps">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="client-authentication.html" title="Chapter 21. Client Authentication">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="auth-trust.html" title="21.4. Trust Authentication">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">21.2. User Name Maps </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 15.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 21.4. Trust Authentication</td></tr></table></div></body></html>