Re: scram and \password

On 03/14/2017 03:15 AM, Heikki Linnakangas wrote:
> On 03/14/2017 04:47 AM, Tom Lane wrote:
>> Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
>>> I'm not talking about changing the default, just having it be possible
>>> to use \password with the new system as it was with the old, whatever
>>> exactly we think that means.
>>
>> Seems to me the intended behavior of \password is to use the best
>> available practice. So my guess is that it ought to use SCRAM when
>> talking to a >= 10.0 server. What the previous password was ought
>> to be irrelevant, even if it could find that out which it shouldn't
>> be able to IMO.
>
> If the server isn't set up to do SCRAM authentication, i.e. there are no
> "scram" entries in pg_hba.conf, and you set yourself a SCRAM verifier,
> you have just locked yourself out of the system. I think that's a
> non-starter. There needs to be some more intelligence in the decision.

Yes, this was exactly my concern.

> It would be a lot more sensible, if there was a way to specify in
> pg_hba.conf, "scram-or-md5". We punted on that for PostgreSQL 10, but
> perhaps we should try to cram that in, after all.

I was also thinking about that. Basically a primary method and a
fallback. If that were the case, a gradual transition could happen, and
if we want \password to enforce best practice it would be ok.

Joe

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