pg_hba.conf(5)

NAME
$PGDATA/pg_hba.conf

DESCRIPTION
"Host-based access control" is the name for the basic controls PostgreSQL exercises on what clients are allowed to access a database and how the users on those clients must authenticate themselves.

Each database system contains a file named "pg_hba.conf", in its $PGDATA directory, that controls who can connect to each database.

Every client that wants to access to a database must be covered by one of the entries in pg_hba.conf. Otherwise all attempted connections from that client will be rejected with a "User authentication failed" error message.

The general format of the pg_hba.conf file is of a set of records, one per line. Blank lines and lines beginning with '#' are ignored. A record is made up of a number of fields which are separated by spaces and/or tabs.

Connections from clients can be made using UNIX domain sockets or Internet domain sockets (ie. TCP/IP). Connections made using UNIX domain sockets are controlled using records of the following format.

local <database> <authentication method>

<database> specifies the database that this record applies to. The value all specifies that it applies to all databases. <authentication method> specifies the method a user must use to authenticate themselves when connecting to that database using UNIX domain sockets. The different methods are described below.

Connections made using Internet domain sockets are controlled using records of the following format.

host <database> <TCP/IP address> <TCP/IP mask> <authentication method>

The <TCP/IP mask> is logically anded to both the specified <TCP/IP address> and the TCP/IP address of the connecting client. If the two values that result are equal then the record is used for this connection. If a connection matches more than one record then the earliest one in the file is used. Both the <TCP/IP address> and the <TCP/IP mask> are specified in dotted decimal notation.

If a connection fails to match any record then the reject authentication method is applied (see below).

AUTHENTICATION METHODS
The following authentication methods are supported for both UNIX and TCP/IP domain sockets.

trust - the connection is allowed unconditionally.

reject - the connection is rejected unconditionally.

crypt - the client is asked for a password for the user. This is sent encrypted (using crypt(3)) and compared against the password held in the pg_user table. If the passwords match, the connection is allowed.

password - the client is asked for a password for the user. This is sent in clear and compared against the password held in the pg_user table. If the passwords match, the connection is allowed. An optional password file may be specified after the password keyword which is used to match the supplied password rather than the pg_user table. See pg_passwd(1).

The following authentication methods are supported for TCP/IP domain sockets only.

krb4 - Kerberos V4 is used to authenticate the user.

krb5 - Kerberos V5 is used to authenticate the user.

ident - the ident server on the client is used to authenticate the user (RFC 1413). An optional map name may be specified after the ident keyword which allows ident user names to be mapped onto PostgreSQL user names. Maps are held in the file $PGDATA/pg_ident.conf.

EXAMPLES
# Trust any connection via UNIX domain sockets.
local    trust
# Trust any connection via TCP/IP from this machine.
host    all    127.0.0.1    255.255.255.255    trust
# We don't like this machine.
host    all    192.168.0.10    255.255.255.0    reject
# This machine can't encrypt so we ask for passwords in clear.
host    all    192.168.0.3    255.255.255.0    password
# The rest of this group of machines should provide encrypted passwords.
host    all    192.168.0.0    255.255.255.0    crypt

SEE ALSO
pgintro(1).