So, can I specify the password to pg_connect() as
'md5127349123742342344234'?
Certainly not. We'd hardly be worrying about obscuring the original
password if the encrypted version were enough to get in with.
AndrewSN can't post at the moment, but asked me to post this for him:
"Knowing the md5 hash is enough to authenticate via the 'md5' method in
pg_hba.conf, even if you don't know the original password. Admittedly
you have to modify libpq to do this, but this isn't going to stop an
attacker for more than 5 seconds."
I'll add my own note that never sending the cleartext password does not
necessarily improve PostgreSQL security, but certainly stops someone who
sniffs the password from then using that cleartext password to get into
other applications. If all they can get is the md5 hash, then all they
can get into is PostgreSQL.
Chris
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