18.9. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL
Prev | Up | Chapter 18. Server Setup and Operation | Home | Next

## 18.9. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSL

PostgreSQL has native support for using SSL connections to encrypt client/server communications for increased security. This requires that OpenSSL is installed on both client and server systems and that support in PostgreSQL is enabled at build time (see Chapter 16).

With SSL support compiled in, the PostgreSQL server can be started with SSL enabled by setting the parameter ssl to `on` in `postgresql.conf`. The server will listen for both normal and SSL connections on the same TCP port, and will negotiate with any connecting client on whether to use SSL. By default, this is at the client's option; see Section 20.1 about how to set up the server to require use of SSL for some or all connections.

PostgreSQL reads the system-wide OpenSSL configuration file. By default, this file is named `openssl.cnf` and is located in the directory reported by `openssl version -d`. This default can be overridden by setting environment variable `OPENSSL_CONF` to the name of the desired configuration file.

OpenSSL supports a wide range of ciphers and authentication algorithms, of varying strength. While a list of ciphers can be specified in the OpenSSL configuration file, you can specify ciphers specifically for use by the database server by modifying ssl_ciphers in `postgresql.conf`.

### Note

It is possible to have authentication without encryption overhead by using `NULL-SHA` or `NULL-MD5` ciphers. However, a man-in-the-middle could read and pass communications between client and server. Also, encryption overhead is minimal compared to the overhead of authentication. For these reasons NULL ciphers are not recommended.

To start in SSL mode, files containing the server certificate and private key must exist. By default, these files are expected to be named `server.crt` and `server.key`, respectively, in the server's data directory, but other names and locations can be specified using the configuration parameters ssl_cert_file and ssl_key_file.

On Unix systems, the permissions on `server.key` must disallow any access to world or group; achieve this by the command `chmod 0600 server.key`. Alternatively, the file can be owned by root and have group read access (that is, `0640` permissions). That setup is intended for installations where certificate and key files are managed by the operating system. The user under which the PostgreSQL server runs should then be made a member of the group that has access to those certificate and key files.

If the private key is protected with a passphrase, the server will prompt for the passphrase and will not start until it has been entered. Using a passphrase also disables the ability to change the server's SSL configuration without a server restart. Furthermore, passphrase-protected private keys cannot be used at all on Windows.

In some cases, the server certificate might be signed by an “intermediate” certificate authority, rather than one that is directly trusted by clients. To use such a certificate, append the certificate of the signing authority to the `server.crt` file, then its parent authority's certificate, and so on up to a certificate authority, “root” or “intermediate”, that is trusted by clients, i.e. signed by a certificate in the clients' `root.crt` files.

### 18.9.1. Using Client Certificates

To require the client to supply a trusted certificate, place certificates of the certificate authorities (CAs) you trust in the file `root.crt` in the data directory, set the parameter ssl_ca_file in `postgresql.conf` to `root.crt`, and add the authentication option `clientcert=1` to the appropriate `hostssl` line(s) in `pg_hba.conf`. A certificate will then be requested from the client during SSL connection startup. (See Section 33.18 for a description of how to set up certificates on the client.) The server will verify that the client's certificate is signed by one of the trusted certificate authorities.

If intermediate CAs appear in `root.crt`, the file must also contain certificate chains to their root CAs. Certificate Revocation List (CRL) entries are also checked if the parameter ssl_crl_file is set. (See http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/83final/ba554_90007/ch04s02.html for diagrams showing SSL certificate usage.)

The `clientcert` authentication option is available for all authentication methods, but only in `pg_hba.conf` lines specified as `hostssl`. When `clientcert` is not specified or is set to 0, the server will still verify any presented client certificates against its CA file, if one is configured — but it will not insist that a client certificate be presented.

Note that the server's `root.crt` lists the top-level CAs that are considered trusted for signing client certificates. In principle it need not list the CA that signed the server's certificate, though in most cases that CA would also be trusted for client certificates.

If you are setting up client certificates, you may wish to use the `cert` authentication method, so that the certificates control user authentication as well as providing connection security. See Section 20.3.9 for details. (It is not necessary to specify `clientcert=1` explicitly when using the `cert` authentication method.)

### 18.9.2. SSL Server File Usage

Table 18.2 summarizes the files that are relevant to the SSL setup on the server. (The shown file names are default or typical names. The locally configured names could be different.)

Table 18.2. SSL Server File Usage

File | Contents | Effect
--- | --- | ---
ssl_cert_file (`$PGDATA/server.crt`) | server certificate | sent to client to indicate server's identity
ssl_key_file (`$PGDATA/server.key`) | server private key | proves server certificate was sent by the owner; does not indicate certificate owner is trustworthy
ssl_ca_file (`$PGDATA/root.crt`) | trusted certificate authorities | checks that client certificate is signed by a trusted certificate authority
ssl_crl_file (`$PGDATA/root.crl`) | certificates revoked by certificate authorities | client certificate must not be on this list

The server reads these files at server start and whenever the server configuration is reloaded. On Windows systems, they are also re-read whenever a new backend process is spawned for a new client connection.

If an error in these files is detected at server start, the server will refuse to start. But if an error is detected during a configuration reload, the files are ignored and the old SSL configuration continues to be used. On Windows systems, if an error in these files is detected at backend start, that backend will be unable to establish an SSL connection. In all these cases, the error condition is reported in the server log.

### 18.9.3. Creating a Self-signed Certificate

To create a quick self-signed certificate for the server, valid for 365 days, use the following OpenSSL command, replacing `yourdomain.com` with the server's host name:

    openssl req -new -x509 -days 365 -nodes -text -out server.crt \
      -keyout server.key -subj "/CN=yourdomain.com"

Then do:

    chmod og-rwx server.key

because the server will reject the file if its permissions are more liberal than this. For more details on how to create your server private key and certificate, refer to the OpenSSL documentation.

A self-signed certificate can be used for testing, but a certificate signed by a certificate authority (CA) (either one of the global CAs or a local one) should be used in production so that clients can verify the server's identity. If all the clients are local to the organization, using a local CA is recommended.

Prev | Up | Next
18.8. Encryption Options | Home | 18.10. Secure TCP/IP Connections with SSH Tunnels