Re: SYSTEM_USER reserved word implementation

Jacob Champion <jchampion@timescale.com> writes:
> On Wed, Jun 22, 2022 at 8:10 AM Joe Conway <mail@joeconway.com> wrote:
>> In case port->authn_id is NULL then the patch is returning the SESSION_USER for the SYSTEM_USER. Perhaps it should return NULL instead.

> If the spec says that SYSTEM_USER "represents the operating system
> user", but we don't actually know who that user was (authn_id is
> NULL), then I think SYSTEM_USER should also be NULL so as not to
> mislead auditors.

Yeah, that seems like a fundamental type mismatch.  If we don't know
the OS user identifier, substituting a SQL role name is surely not
the right thing.

I think a case could be made for ONLY returning non-null when authn_id
represents some externally-verified identifier (OS user ID gotten via
peer identification, Kerberos principal, etc).

			regards, tom lane