Re: Thoughts on pg_hba.conf rejection

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 08:37:18PM -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 8:31 PM, Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> wrote:
> > Tom Lane wrote:
> >> Robert Haas <robertmhaas(at)gmail(dot)com> writes:
> >> > What's wrong with something like "connection not permitted" or
> >> > "connection not authorized"?
> >>
> >> The case that we're trying to cater to with the existing wording
> >> is novice DBAs, who are likely to stare at such a message and not
> >> even realize that pg_hba.conf is what they need to change.
> >>  Frankly, by the time anyone is using REJECT entries they are
> >> probably advanced enough to not need much help from the error
> >> message; but what you propose is an absolute lock to increase the
> >> number of newbie questions on the lists by a large factor.
> >
> > Agreed.  I would rather have an inaccurate error message that
> > mentions pg_hba.conf than an accurate one that doesn't.
> >
> > Error messages should always point at a solution, if possible.
>
> OK, how about "connection not authorized by pg_hba.conf"?

+1. It's clear, and if an attacker can compromise pg_hba.conf,
there's nothing PostgreSQL can do to help.

I'd like to bring up the idea of an attacker who both has that access
and doesn't know about pg_hba.conf just to dismiss it. Such a person
might exist, but we don't need to bend things around a case so rare
that it makes being struck by lightning look like a certainty. :)

Cheers,
David.
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