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- <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>20.5. Password Authentication</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.79.1" /><link rel="prev" href="auth-trust.html" title="20.4. Trust Authentication" /><link rel="next" href="gssapi-auth.html" title="20.6. GSSAPI Authentication" /></head><body><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">20.5. Password Authentication</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="auth-trust.html" title="20.4. Trust Authentication">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="client-authentication.html" title="Chapter 20. Client Authentication">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 20. Client Authentication</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 12.4 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="gssapi-auth.html" title="20.6. GSSAPI Authentication">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="AUTH-PASSWORD"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">20.5. Password Authentication</h2></div></div></div><a id="id-1.6.7.12.2" class="indexterm"></a><a id="id-1.6.7.12.3" class="indexterm"></a><a id="id-1.6.7.12.4" class="indexterm"></a><p>
- There are several password-based authentication methods. These methods
- operate similarly but differ in how the users' passwords are stored on the
- server and how the password provided by a client is sent across the
- connection.
- </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- The method <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code> performs SCRAM-SHA-256
- authentication, as described in
- <a class="ulink" href="https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7677" target="_top">RFC 7677</a>. It
- is a challenge-response scheme that prevents password sniffing on
- untrusted connections and supports storing passwords on the server in a
- cryptographically hashed form that is thought to be secure.
- </p><p>
- This is the most secure of the currently provided methods, but it is
- not supported by older client libraries.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">md5</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- The method <code class="literal">md5</code> uses a custom less secure challenge-response
- mechanism. It prevents password sniffing and avoids storing passwords
- on the server in plain text but provides no protection if an attacker
- manages to steal the password hash from the server. Also, the MD5 hash
- algorithm is nowadays no longer considered secure against determined
- attacks.
- </p><p>
- The <code class="literal">md5</code> method cannot be used with
- the <a class="xref" href="runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-DB-USER-NAMESPACE">db_user_namespace</a> feature.
- </p><p>
- To ease transition from the <code class="literal">md5</code> method to the newer
- SCRAM method, if <code class="literal">md5</code> is specified as a method
- in <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code> but the user's password on the
- server is encrypted for SCRAM (see below), then SCRAM-based
- authentication will automatically be chosen instead.
- </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">password</code></span></dt><dd><p>
- The method <code class="literal">password</code> sends the password in clear-text and is
- therefore vulnerable to password <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">sniffing</span>”</span> attacks. It should
- always be avoided if possible. If the connection is protected by SSL
- encryption then <code class="literal">password</code> can be used safely, though.
- (Though SSL certificate authentication might be a better choice if one
- is depending on using SSL).
- </p></dd></dl></div><p>
- <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> database passwords are
- separate from operating system user passwords. The password for
- each database user is stored in the <code class="literal">pg_authid</code> system
- catalog. Passwords can be managed with the SQL commands
- <a class="xref" href="sql-createrole.html" title="CREATE ROLE"><span class="refentrytitle">CREATE ROLE</span></a> and
- <a class="xref" href="sql-alterrole.html" title="ALTER ROLE"><span class="refentrytitle">ALTER ROLE</span></a>,
- e.g., <strong class="userinput"><code>CREATE ROLE foo WITH LOGIN PASSWORD 'secret'</code></strong>,
- or the <span class="application">psql</span>
- command <code class="literal">\password</code>.
- If no password has been set up for a user, the stored password
- is null and password authentication will always fail for that user.
- </p><p>
- The availability of the different password-based authentication methods
- depends on how a user's password on the server is encrypted (or hashed,
- more accurately). This is controlled by the configuration
- parameter <a class="xref" href="runtime-config-connection.html#GUC-PASSWORD-ENCRYPTION">password_encryption</a> at the time the
- password is set. If a password was encrypted using
- the <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code> setting, then it can be used for the
- authentication methods <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code>
- and <code class="literal">password</code> (but password transmission will be in
- plain text in the latter case). The authentication method
- specification <code class="literal">md5</code> will automatically switch to using
- the <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code> method in this case, as explained
- above, so it will also work. If a password was encrypted using
- the <code class="literal">md5</code> setting, then it can be used only for
- the <code class="literal">md5</code> and <code class="literal">password</code> authentication
- method specifications (again, with the password transmitted in plain text
- in the latter case). (Previous PostgreSQL releases supported storing the
- password on the server in plain text. This is no longer possible.) To
- check the currently stored password hashes, see the system
- catalog <code class="literal">pg_authid</code>.
- </p><p>
- To upgrade an existing installation from <code class="literal">md5</code>
- to <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code>, after having ensured that all client
- libraries in use are new enough to support SCRAM,
- set <code class="literal">password_encryption = 'scram-sha-256'</code>
- in <code class="filename">postgresql.conf</code>, make all users set new passwords,
- and change the authentication method specifications
- in <code class="filename">pg_hba.conf</code> to <code class="literal">scram-sha-256</code>.
- </p></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="auth-trust.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="client-authentication.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="gssapi-auth.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">20.4. Trust Authentication </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> 20.6. GSSAPI Authentication</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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