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Re: sandboxing untrusted code

Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>

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From: Andres Freund <andres@anarazel.de>
To: Tom Lane <tgl@sss.pgh.pa.us>
Cc: Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com>, Jeff Davis <pgsql@j-davis.com>, PostgreSQL-development <pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org>, Noah Misch <noah@leadboat.com>, Jacob Champion <jacob.champion@enterprisedb.com>
Date: 2026-04-18T19:33:53Z
Lists: pgsql-hackers 
Hi,

On 2026-04-18 15:26:33 -0400, Tom Lane wrote:
> Robert Haas <robertmhaas@gmail.com> writes:
> > Returning to this topic after some time, I have realized that both of
> > these rules are inadequate.
> > ... As soon as
> > the attacker has *any* influence over what code the victim calls,
> > there's a danger of a "confused deputy" attack.
> 
> This is true, but I think it's hopeless to imagine that a technical
> solution can stop that type of attack altogether.  The deception
> might happen entirely outside our system; the classical example
> being where somebody persuades you to copy-and-paste some shell
> code into your terminal window without fully understanding it.
> 
> It's certainly likely that there's room for improvement of your
> sandboxing ideas, but you shouldn't abandon them because they don't
> solve some insoluble problems.  If we can make large classes of
> attacks infeasible at reasonable cost, we've still accomplished
> a lot.

Agreed. Even if there are some holes, it sounds like it'd rather drastically
increase the likelihood of making such subversion attempts noticeable. That on
its own is extremely valuable.

Greetings,

Andres Freund

Commits

Same data as JSON: GET /api/v1/messages/:b64id/commits the thread's linked commits as JSON, with link sources. API reference →

  1. Fix possible crash in tablesync worker.

  2. Display 'password_required' option for \dRs+ command.

  3. Restart the apply worker if the 'password_required' option is changed.

  4. Fix possible logical replication crash.

  5. Add new predefined role pg_create_subscription.

  6. Expand AclMode to 64 bits

  7. More cleanup of a2ab9c06ea.

  8. Respect permissions within logical replication.

  9. Improve table locking behavior in the face of current DDL.