Re: initdb recommendations

On Mon, Apr 8, 2019 at 2:41 PM Jonathan S. Katz <jkatz(at)postgresql(dot)org>
wrote:

> On 4/8/19 8:25 AM, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > On 2019-04-05 18:11, Jonathan S. Katz wrote:
> >> + <para>
> >> + We recommend using the <option>-W</option>,
> <option>--pwprompt</option>,
> >> + or <option>--pwfile</option> flags to assign a password to the
> database
> >> + superuser, and to override the <filename>pg_hba.conf</filename>
> default
> >> + generation using <option>-auth-local peer</option> for local
> connections,
> >> + and <option>-auth-host scram-sha-256</option> for remote
> connections. See
> >> + <xref linkend="client-authentication"/> for more information on
> client
> >> + authentication methods.
> >> + </para>
> >
> > As discussed on hackers, we are not ready to support scram-sha-256 out
> > of the box. So this advice, or any similar advice elsewhere, would need
> > to recommend "md5" as the setting --- which would probably be
> embarrassing.
>
> Well, it's less embarrassing than trust, and we currently state:
>

Yes. Much less.

"Also, specify -A md5 or -A password so that the default trust
> authentication mode is not used"[1]
>
> We could also modify it to say :
>
> "and <option>-auth-host scram-sha-256</option> for remote connections if
> your client supports it, otherwise <option>-auth-host md5</option>"
>

That would be the best from a correctness, but if of course also makes
things sound more complicated. I'm not sure where the right balance is
there.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: https://www.hagander.net/ <http://www.hagander.net/>
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