Re: Possibility to disable `ALTER SYSTEM`

From: Daniel Gustafsson <daniel(at)yesql(dot)se>
To: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Cc: Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka(at)iki(dot)fi>, PostgreSQL Hackers <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>, Jelte Fennema-Nio <postgres(at)jeltef(dot)nl>, Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us>, Joel Jacobson <joel(at)compiler(dot)org>, Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net>, Gabriele Bartolini <gabriele(dot)bartolini(at)enterprisedb(dot)com>, Magnus Hagander <magnus(dot)hagander(at)redpill-linpro(dot)com>, Maciek Sakrejda <m(dot)sakrejda(at)gmail(dot)com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com>
Subject: Re: Possibility to disable `ALTER SYSTEM`
Date: 2024-03-19 17:57:10
Message-ID: A01903E1-85AB-47A0-804F-986A3855FF83@yesql.se
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> On 19 Mar 2024, at 15:51, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>
> Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka(at)iki(dot)fi> writes:
>> Perhaps we could make that even better with a GUC though. I propose a
>> GUC called 'configuration_managed_externally = true / false". If you set
>> it to true, we prevent ALTER SYSTEM and make the error message more
>> definitive:
>
>> postgres=# ALTER SYSTEM SET wal_level TO minimal;
>> ERROR: configuration is managed externally
>
>> As a bonus, if that GUC is set, we could even check at server startup
>> that all the configuration files are not writable by the postgres user,
>> and print a warning or refuse to start up if they are.
>
> I like this idea. The "bonus" is not optional though, because
> setting the files' ownership/permissions is the only way to be
> sure that the prohibition is even a little bit bulletproof.

Agreed, assuming we can solve the below..

> One small issue: how do we make that work on Windows? Have recent
> versions grown anything that looks like real file permissions?

--
Daniel Gustafsson

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