Re: Application name patch - v2

2009/10/19 Dimitri Fontaine <dfontaine(at)hi-media(dot)com>:
> Andrew Dunstan <andrew(at)dunslane(dot)net> writes:
>> Pavel Stehule wrote:
>>> Others GUC has not important role in logs. It's similar as possibility
>>> to change client IP address.
>>
>> That doesn't even remotely answer the question. How is such a thing a vector
>> for an SQL injection attack, that does not apply to other GUCs? If your
>> answer is that log parsers will try to inject the values, then it those
>> programs that need to be fixed, rather than restricting this facility in a
>> way that will make it close to pointless.
>
> That's not how I parse Pavel's worries. I think what's he telling here
> is that seeing how the new GUC will get used (filtering logs), it
> happens that if you're vulnerable to SQL injection it could be worse
> with the application name setting than without, because attacker would
> hide its injections under a filtered-out application name.
>
> Not sure my saying is easier to parse than Pavel's, btw...
>
>> And no, it is not at all the same as changing the client's IP address.
>
> If you filter logs by IP to detect attackers, and will filter by
> application name in the future, I can see how it compares.
>
> Now, I don't think Pavel's worries have much weight here because if
> you're vulnerable to SQL injection you want to first fix this. And you
> will want to give different (sub-)application names from within the same
> connection, and the easier way to provide that is to change the GUC
> value.

sure, you have to fix fulnerable application. But with some
unsophisticated using %a and using wrong tools, the people can be
blind and don't register an SQL injection attack.
>
> +1 for user settable GUC for setting application name.
> --
> dim
>