Re: SE-PostgreSQL and row level security

From: "Kevin Grittner" <Kevin(dot)Grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov>
To: "Tom Lane" <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us>
Cc: "KaiGai Kohei" <kaigai(at)ak(dot)jp(dot)nec(dot)com>, "Gregory Stark" <stark(at)enterprisedb(dot)com>, "David Fetter" <david(at)fetter(dot)org>, "KaiGai Kohei" <kaigai(at)kaigai(dot)gr(dot)jp>,<bogdan(at)omnidatagrup(dot)ro>, <pgsql-hackers(at)postgresql(dot)org>, "Martijn van Oosterhout" <kleptog(at)svana(dot)org>
Subject: Re: SE-PostgreSQL and row level security
Date: 2009-02-16 15:01:45
Message-ID: 49992B79.EE98.0025.0@wicourts.gov
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>>> Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
> "Kevin Grittner" <Kevin(dot)Grittner(at)wicourts(dot)gov> writes:
>> Gregory Stark <stark(at)enterprisedb(dot)com> wrote:
>>> And it doesn't accomplish anything since the covert
>>> channels it attempts to address are still open.
>
>> Hyperbole. We're not very likely to go the SE-* route, but I can
say
>> that we've got some of the issues it addresses, and it is a very
>> different thing for someone to know, for example, that there is a
>> paternity case 2009PA000023 in a county, and for them to know what
the
>> case caption is (which includes the names).
>
> Which is something you could implement with standard SQL column
> permissions; and could *not* implement with row-level access
> permissions. Row-level is all or nothing for each row.

Well, 99% of the cases are a matter of public record and we *do* have
to show case caption. It's not the caption column in general which
must be hidden, nor the fact that a row with that primary key exists,
but the *contents* of certain rows. We can identify those based on
case type, and a class code which is essentially a finer-grained
categorization of cases, and limit who can see what based on
permissions tables we maintain. We do that in the application, but I
can certainly understand and sympathize with those who want to control
that at the level allowed by SE-* technology.

-Kevin

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