Subject: Access control problem

From: [email-masked] (postgres)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 11:16:23 -0800

Hi,

I recently installed postgres (v 4.0.1) on our unix cluster. A few users
asked me the following question (I did not find an answer for it in the
user's manual or the reference book):-

If user A owns a data-base, how can other users (e.g user's B, C, D etc)
access the data-base for "read-only" purposes without being able to 
modify or update the data-base. In other words, how can other user's
retrieve data without being able to modify it? 

I tried the following thing:

(1) Created an user A with permissions to create and destroy databases.
I created a database (called LABEL) belonging to the user. Then I created
another user (user B) with no permissions to delete and add databases. 
However this did NOT prevent user B from accessing the LABEL database
and changing (adding/deleting) records within in.

After hacking for a while, I noticed that each & every user who has a
postgres account (does not matter what postgres-permissions I give to the
user while creating an account) is able to access any other data-base
created by another user and change records within it.

Is this a definite bug/limitation of the software? Is there a way to get
around the problem? Namely, what should/could I do as the "postgres" 
account to prevent users other than the "data-base owner" to modify the
data-base...(but at the same possibly allow them to use the data-base in
"read-only" mode). Did I screw up the installation process somehow (i.e.
does the installation have to be done as root... i.e. do some postgres 
commands need to run with suid=root ?).

Any help/information will be greatly appreciated. Any documentation 
available regarding "access control" etc. will be of great value.

*************************************************************************

                        Mr. Jayen Malde
                        [email-masked]
                                   OR
                        [email-masked]

*************************************************************************

---

From: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 11:37:52 PST

In message <[email-masked]> you write:

> In other words, how can other user's

access controls in 4.0.1 are virtually non-existent.  this is a hot issue
we plan to address in version 4.1 of the system.  until then, i'm afraid
you're out of luck.
					mike