Dear

I am using redhat linux 9.0 and postgres 7.3.x. To connect to postgres database, i am using an phppgadmin(which will enable us to work in an GUI environment), But when i login as postgres without password, it allows me to login. And whatever the password i give, it allows me to login. Please help me to solve this security issue.
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i have the following entries in the pg_hba.conf file

# PostgreSQL Client Authentication Configuration File
# ===================================================
#
# Refer to the PostgreSQL Administrator's Guide, chapter "Client
# Authentication" for a complete description. A short synopsis
# follows.
#
# This file controls: which hosts are allowed to connect, how clients
# are authenticated, which PostgreSQL user names they can use, which
# databases they can access. Records take one of three forms:
#
# local DATABASE USER METHOD [OPTION]
# host DATABASE USER IP-ADDRESS IP-MASK METHOD [OPTION]
# hostssl DATABASE USER IP-ADDRESS IP-MASK METHOD [OPTION]
#
# (The uppercase quantities should be replaced by actual values.)
# DATABASE can be "all", "sameuser", "samegroup", a database name (or
# a comma-separated list thereof), or a file name prefixed with "@".
# USER can be "all", an actual user name or a group name prefixed with
# "+" or a list containing either. IP-ADDRESS and IP-MASK specify the
# set of hosts the record matches. METHOD can be "trust", "reject",
# "md5", "crypt", "password", "krb4", "krb5", "ident", or "pam". Note
# that "password" uses clear-text passwords; "md5" is preferred for
# encrypted passwords. OPTION is the ident map or the name of the PAM
# service.
#
# This file is read on server startup and when the postmaster receives
# a SIGHUP signal. If you edit the file on a running system, you have
# to SIGHUP the postmaster for the changes to take effect, or use
# "pg_ctl reload".

# Put your actual configuration here
# ----------------------------------
#
# CAUTION: The default configuration allows any local user to connect
# using any PostgreSQL user name, including the superuser, over either
# Unix-domain sockets or TCP/IP. If you are on a multiple-user
# machine, the default configuration is probably too liberal for you.
# Change it to use something other than "trust" authentication.
#
# If you want to allow non-local connections, you need to add more
# "host" records. Also, remember TCP/IP connections are only enabled
# if you enable "tcpip_socket" in postgresql.conf.

# TYPE DATABASE USER IP-ADDRESS IP-MASK METHOD

local all all trust
host all all 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 trust

# Using sockets credentials for improved security. Not available everywhere,
# but works on Linux, *BSD (and probably some others)

local all all ident sameuser

The "trust" authentication method is the problem here. This does allow unconditional access without a password being supplied. You'll need to change this to one of the authentication methods described in http://www.postgresql.org/docs/7.3/i...tication.html. Using md5 will probably provide the best security.

Thanks i am not able to get the link which you have given. If u r able to get, please send in this forum itself.

The available authentication methods are:

trust : always allow the connection, do not check password
reject : always reject the connection, do not check password
md5 : Require an MD5 encrypted password from the client (this is the preferred method for insecure networks).
crypt : Like md5, but using less secure encryption. Required for compatibility with client versions < 7.2
password : Like md5, but the password is not encrypted.
krb4 : Use Kerberos V4 authentication (only available for TCP/IP connections)
krb5 : Like krb4, but with Kerberos V5
ident : Perform authentication using the OS user names.
pam : Use the PAM service to authenticate.

I'd suggest changing the "trust" sections of the file to "md5", for a fairly secure system. If this causes problems, you could also try "password", which should be secure enough since you're only connecting locally.