Date: Sun, 25 Mar 2007 23:21:25 -0600
From: Michael Fuhr <mike@fuhr.org>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Ray Stell <stellr@cns.vt.edu>, pgsql-admin@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: no verification of client certificate?
Message-ID: <20070326052125.GA6352@winnie.fuhr.org>
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On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 12:04:21AM -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Well, if it works then why is the OP complaining?
> 
> Perhaps there is some non-obvious configuration issue that accounts
> for the difference between your results and his?

I don't see in the OP's messages that he's tried the configuration
I used.  He said he was using the following:

> > no root.crt in the data dir
> > no .postgresql/    <--- this is what made me think there was no server verification
> > server.crt/key in the data dir
> > pg_hba.conf set to hostssl
> > PGSSLMODE=required or prefer

My test configuration looks the same on the server but different
on the client:

Server, in $PGDATA
==================
server.key
server.crt (signed by some CA)
no root.crt

Client, in ~/.postgresql
========================
root.crt (for the CA that signed server.crt)
no postgresql.key or postgresql.crt

The OP did say that 

> > When I first looked at the ssl doc, I didn't see any description of
> > installing the root ca on the client.  This seemed odd.  On my web client,
> > when I need to verify the server crt, I install the appropriate ca in
> > the client.

The "SSL Support" section of the libpq documentation mentions
installing root.crt on the client:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.2/interactive/libpq-ssl.html

"If the file ~/.postgresql/root.crt is present in the user's home
directory, libpq will use the certificate list stored therein to
verify the server's certificate.  (On Microsoft Windows the file is
named %APPDATA%\postgresql\root.crt.)  The SSL connection will fail
if the server does not present a certificate; therefore, to use
this feature the server must also have a root.crt file."

The requirement that the server have a root.crt appears to be
incorrect, at least in the tests I ran.  Unless somebody can justify
that statement I'll submit a documentation patch to correct it.

-- 
Michael Fuhr