Re: Internal key management system

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 16:07, Fabien COELHO <coelho(at)cri(dot)ensmp(dot)fr> wrote:
>
>
> Hello Bruce,
>
> Sorry for the length (yet again) of this answer, I'm trying to make my
> point as clear as possible.

Thank you for your explanation!

>
> >> Obviously it requires some more thinking and design, but my point is that
> >> postgres should not hold a KEK, ever, nor presume how DEK are to be managed
> >> by a DMS, and that is not very difficult to achieve by putting it outside of
> >> pg and defining how interactions take place. Providing a reference/example
> >> implementation would be nice as well, and Masahiko-san code can be rewrapped
> >> quite easily.
> >
> > Well, the decrypted keys are already stored in backend memory,
>
> The fact that if the pg process is compromised then the DEK and data
> encrypted are compromised is more or less unavoidable (maybe only the data
> could be compromised though, but not the DEK, depending on how the
> encryption/decryption operates).
>
> > so what risk does haveing the KEK in memory for a brief period avoid?
>
> My understanding is that the KEK does not protect one key, but all keys,
> thus all data, possibly even past or future, so it loss impacts more than
> the here and now local process.
>
> If the KEK is ever present in pg process, it presumes that the threat
> model being addressed allows its loss if the process is compromised, i.e.
> all (past, present, future) security properties are void once the process
> is compromised.

Why we should not put KEK in pg process but it's okay for other
processes? I guess you're talking about a threat when a malicious user
logged in OS (or at least accessible) but I thought there is no
difference between pg process and other processes in terms of the
process being compromised. So the solution, in that case, would be to
outsource encryption/decryption to external servers as Bruce
mentioned.

Regards,

--
Masahiko Sawada http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Remote DBA, Training & Services