Re: password_encryption, default and 'plain' support

On Wed, May 3, 2017 at 1:31 PM, Heikki Linnakangas <hlinnaka(at)iki(dot)fi> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> In various threads on SCRAM, we've skirted around the question of whether
> we should still allow storing passwords in plaintext. I've avoided
> discussing that in those other threads, because it's been an orthogonal
> question, but it's a good question and we should discuss it.
>
> So, I propose that we remove support for password_encryption='plain' in
> PostgreSQL 10. If you try to do that, you'll get an error.
>

Is there any usecase at all for it today?

+1 for getting rid of it :)

> Another question that's been touched upon but not explicitly discussed, is
> whether we should change the default to "scram-sha-256". I propose that we
> do that as well. If you need to stick to md5, e.g. because you use drivers
> that don't support SCRAM yet, you can change it in postgresql.conf, but the
> majority of installations that use modern clients will be more secure by
> default.

Much as that's going to cause issues for some people, I think it's worth
doing. We should probably put something specific in the release notes
mentioning the error message you get in libpq, and possibly some of the
other most common drivers.

--
Magnus Hagander
Me: https://www.hagander.net/ <http://www.hagander.net/>
Work: https://www.redpill-linpro.com/ <http://www.redpill-linpro.com/>