Re: Enquiry about TDE with PgSQL

On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 3:01 AM Laurenz Albe <laurenz(dot)albe(at)cybertec(dot)at>
wrote:

> On Fri, 2025-10-17 at 00:49 -0400, Ron Johnson wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 16, 2025 at 6:05 PM Greg Sabino Mullane <htamfids(at)gmail(dot)com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > TDE, on the other hand, is a very complex and difficult thing to add
> into Postgres.
> >
> > TDE was added to SQL Server, with (to us, at least) minimally-noticed
> overhead.
> > Oracle has it, too, but I don't know the details.
> >
> > The bottom line is that requirements for TDE are escalating, whether you
> like it or
> > not, as Yet Another Layer Of Defense against hackers exfiltrating data,
> and then
> > threatening to leak it to the public.
>
> Bruce Momjian has interesting things to say about that in
> https://compiledconversations.com/6/ (unfortunately I don't remember where
> exactly in this 84 minute piece).
>
> It is a feature that users want (or need to comply with whatever they feel
> they have to comply with). On the other hand, it has very limited
> technical
> or security value, which hampers its acceptance into core.
>

I gave you a reason: "Yet Another Layer Of Defense against hackers
exfiltrating data". It's the same reason PgBackRest encrypts backups.

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