Re: Enhancements to passwordcheck

From: Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)alvh(dot)no-ip(dot)org>
To: "Bossart, Nathan" <bossartn(at)amazon(dot)com>
Cc: Peter Eisentraut <peter(dot)eisentraut(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com>, Euler Taveira <euler(at)timbira(dot)com(dot)br>, Michael Paquier <michael(dot)paquier(at)gmail(dot)com>, "pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org" <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: Enhancements to passwordcheck
Date: 2017-09-27 15:06:49
Message-ID: 20170927150649.mws6xds44jnp4no4@alvherre.pgsql
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Bossart, Nathan wrote:
> On 9/27/17, 7:41 AM, "Peter Eisentraut" <peter(dot)eisentraut(at)2ndquadrant(dot)com> wrote:
> > On 9/25/17 23:10, Bossart, Nathan wrote:
> >> One interesting design challenge will be how to handle pre-hashed
> >> passwords, since the number of checks we can do on those is pretty
> >> limited. I'm currently thinking of a parameter that can be used to
> >> block, allow, or force pre-hashed passwords.
> >
> > Pre-hashed passwords are the normal case. You can't break that without
> > making this module a net loss in security.
>
> A strength in making this configurable is that you could use it to
> enforce that passwords are pre-hashed. But yes, blocking pre-
> hashed passwords could be undesirable given an untrusted network or
> server.

I think a password strength check must live at the end that does the
encryption -- something like in psql when you do the \password command,
*before* the encrypted password is sent to the server. Then you can do
all sort of stuff (... except check for password history).

I think the passwordcheck module as a whole is a dead end, security-
wise. Myself, I've never seen the point in it. It runs at the wrong
time, and there's no way to fix that.

--
Álvaro Herrera https://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services

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