Hi

I'm not sure if you've done this for a later version of pg_autovacuum.
I'm using what came with postgres-7.4.6. For database security on
a shared server (~800 logins) it's best to set the superuser password
and not allow passwordless connections. The only thing is that
pg_autovacuum keeps the password supplied on the commandline so
anyone that does a 'ps' can get the database superuser password.

--- pg_autovacuum.c.orig Mon Apr 18 08:08:27 2005
+++ pg_autovacuum.c Mon Apr 18 07:57:59 2005
@@ -879,7 +879,8 @@
args->user = optarg;
break;
case 'P':
- args->password = optarg;
+ args->password = strdup(optarg);
+ for (c = 0; optarg[c]; optarg[c++] = 'x');
break;
case 'H':
args->host = optarg;

I hope that this is a worthwhile patch.

Ian


--
Ian Freislich

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Ian FREISLICH wrote:
> I'm not sure if you've done this for a later version of pg_autovacuum.
> I'm using what came with postgres-7.4.6. For database security on
> a shared server (~800 logins) it's best to set the superuser password
> and not allow passwordless connections. The only thing is that
> pg_autovacuum keeps the password supplied on the commandline so
> anyone that does a 'ps' can get the database superuser password.

Is this portable? Considering the hoops that
backend/utils/misc/ps_status.c jumps through to do something similar for
the postmaster, I would guess not.

BTW, I would suggest using ~/.pgpass, as that should be secure on all
platforms.

-Neil

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Ian FREISLICH <if@hetzner.co.za> writes:
> ... The only thing is that
> pg_autovacuum keeps the password supplied on the commandline so
> anyone that does a 'ps' can get the database superuser password.

Which is exactly why we don't (and won't) provide such a switch.
Use ~/.pgpass instead.

regards, tom lane

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