Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2025 12:19:33 -0400
From: Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us>
To: Laurenz Albe <laurenz.albe@cybertec.at>
Cc: soumen rana <soumenrana.06@gmail.com>, pgsql-admin@lists.postgresql.org
Subject: Re: Anti virus scanning for Postgres database servers
Message-ID: <aNLIlWRXqsd6GFdd@momjian.us>
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On Tue, Sep 23, 2025 at 05:49:39PM +0200, Laurenz Albe wrote:
> 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 will be
> > > > scanned by Microsoft Defender and quarantine any threats.
> > > > 
> > > > We have requested to exclude the data directories from the Antivirus scanning.
> > > > Is anyone aware of any performance,  operational, or data-loss related
> > > > challenges with Anti Virus scanning of Postgres binaries?
> > > 
> > > I think that should be safe, at least until Microsoft starts to perceive
> > > PostgreSQL as a threat...
> > 
> > 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.

Ah, yes, the Postges binaries should be safe to scan, and probably
useful to scan.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        https://momjian.us
  EDB                                      https://enterprisedb.com

  Do not let urgent matters crowd out time for investment in the future.