Re: Authentication fails for md5 connections if ~/.postgresql/postgresql.{crt and key} exist

On Sun, Jan 29, 2023 at 5:02 AM Jim Jones <jim(dot)jones(at)uni-muenster(dot)de> wrote:
> On 27.01.23 21:13, Cary Huang wrote:
> > But, if the server does request clientcert but client uses
> "sslcertmode=disable" to connect and not give a certificate, it would
> also result in authentication failure. In this case, we actually would
> want to ignore "sslcertmode=disable" and send default certificates if
> found.
>
> I'm just wondering if this is really necessary. If the server asks for a
> certificate and the user explicitly says "I don't want to send it",
> shouldn't it be ok for the server return an authentication failure? I
> mean, wouldn't it defeat the purpose of "sslcertmode=disable"?

+1. In my opinion, if I tell libpq not to share my certificate with
the server, and it then fails to authenticate, that's intended and
useful behavior. (I don't really want libpq to try to find more ways
to authenticate me; that causes other security issues [1, 2].)

--Jacob

[1] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/0adf992619e7bf138eb4119622d37e3efb6515d5.camel%40j-davis.com
[2] https://www.postgresql.org/message-id/46562.1637695110%40sss.pgh.pa.us