Message-ID: <0475bf8be3d8a6b7a04b72b7b041695b4d16c4dd.camel@cybertec.at>
Subject: Re: Anti virus scanning for Postgres database servers
From: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
To: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
Cc: soumen rana <soumenrana.06@gmail.com>, pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2025 17:49:39 +0200
In-Reply-To: <aNKMgEKo8VDq0mId@momjian.us>
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On Tue, 2025-09-23 at 08:03 -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 08:22:51AM +0200, Laurenz Albe wrote:
> > On Mon, 2025-09-22 at 13:03 -0700, soumen rana wrote:
> > > This will mean that the Postgres Installation directories and files w=
ill be
> > > scanned by Microsoft Defender and quarantine any threats.
> > >=20
> > > We have requested to exclude the data directories from the Antivirus =
scanning.
> > > Is anyone aware of any performance,=C2=A0 operational, or data-loss r=
elated
> > > challenges with Anti Virus scanning of Postgres binaries?
> >=20
> > I think that should be safe, at least until Microsoft starts to perceiv=
e
> > PostgreSQL as a threat...
>=20
> Uh, if the anti-virus software does not modify any files, you are likely
> to get false positives when the antivirus software thinks Postgres data
> is a virus.  If the anti-virus software modifies the data directory in
> any way, you are likely to get database corruption or a non-operational
> database.

Absolutely.  I was commenting the suggestion to exempt the data directory
from the virus scan and only scan the PostgreSQL binaries.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe