Re: logfile subprocess and Fancy File Functions

Tom Lane wrote:
> Bruce Momjian <pgman(at)candle(dot)pha(dot)pa(dot)us> writes:
> > Tom Lane wrote:
> >> I'm pretty much against allowing configuration editing from remote
> >> altogether.
>
> > Why can't they just use COPY to replace the contents of pg_hba.conf now?
>
> If you've write-protected it, that doesn't work.
>
> Also, COPY insists on an absolute path, and if the attacker doesn't know
> the value of $PGDATA or $HOME then he'll have some difficulty doing
> anything much with it. I thought that the handy default of $PGDATA in
> the proposed functions was pretty unwise all by itself --- if they don't
> require absolute paths then that's still another new door we'll be opening.

I think he wanted $PGDATA default so a remote user could find the log
location without a problem. I would prefer to see something specific in
the file name passed to identify PGDATA, but I don't have a problem with
the substitution. Thinking we have security because they can't guess
pgdata seems like security through obscurity to me.

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