Re: WIP: AuthenticationMD5 protocol documentation clarification

Re: WIP: AuthenticationMD5 protocol documentation clarification

Heikki Linnakangas wrote:
> On 06.06.2011 16:58, Robert Haas wrote:
> > On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Cyan Ogilvie  wrote:
> >> This is my first patch, so I hope I've got the process right for submitting
> >> patches.
> >
> > You're doing great.  I suspect we do want to either (1) reword what
> > you've done in English, rather than writing it as code, or at least
> > (2) add some SGML markup to the code.  Our next CommitFest starts in
> > just over a week, so you should receive some more specific feedback
> > pretty soon.
> 
> That is quite complicated to explain in plain English, so some sort of 
> pseudo-code is probably a good idea. I would recommend not to formulate 
> it as a SQL expression, though. It makes you think you could execute it 
> from psql or something. Even if you know that's not how to do it, it 
> feels confusing. Maybe something like:
> 
> md5 hex_encode(md5(hex_encode(md5(password username) 
> salt)
> 
> with some extra markup to make it look pretty.

I have applied the attached doc patch to document this.  Thanks for the
report --- it was something we certainly needed to document.

-- 
  Bruce Momjian          http://momjian.us
  EnterpriseDB                             http://enterprisedb.com

  + It's impossible for everything to be true. +
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/protocol.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/protocol.sgml
new file mode 100644
index 19c9686..4fda518
*** a/doc/src/sgml/protocol.sgml
--- b/doc/src/sgml/protocol.sgml
***************
*** 293,302 ****
        
         
          The frontend must now send a PasswordMessage containing the
!         password encrypted via MD5, using the 4-character salt
!         specified in the AuthenticationMD5Password message.  If
!         this is the correct password, the server responds with an
!         AuthenticationOk, otherwise it responds with an ErrorResponse.
         
        
       
--- 293,307 ----
        
         
          The frontend must now send a PasswordMessage containing the
!         password (with username) encrypted via MD5, then encrypted
!         again using the 4-byte random salt specified in the
!         AuthenticationMD5Password message.  If this is the correct
!         password, the server responds with an AuthenticationOk,
!         otherwise it responds with an ErrorResponse.  The actual
!         PasswordMessage can be computed in SQL as concat('md5',
!         md5(concat(md5(concat(password, username)), random-salt)))</>.
!         (Keep in mind the md5()</> function returns its
!         result as a hex string.)
         
        
       

Re: WIP: AuthenticationMD5 protocol documentation clarification

On 06.06.2011 16:58, Robert Haas wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Cyan Ogilvie  wrote:
>> This is my first patch, so I hope I've got the process right for submitting
>> patches.
>
> You're doing great.  I suspect we do want to either (1) reword what
> you've done in English, rather than writing it as code, or at least
> (2) add some SGML markup to the code.  Our next CommitFest starts in
> just over a week, so you should receive some more specific feedback
> pretty soon.

That is quite complicated to explain in plain English, so some sort of 
pseudo-code is probably a good idea. I would recommend not to formulate 
it as a SQL expression, though. It makes you think you could execute it 
from psql or something. Even if you know that's not how to do it, it 
feels confusing. Maybe something like:

md5 hex_encode(md5(hex_encode(md5(password username) 
salt)

with some extra markup to make it look pretty.

--   Heikki Linnakangas  EnterpriseDB   http://www.enterprisedb.com

Re: WIP: AuthenticationMD5 protocol documentation clarification

On Sun, Jun 5, 2011 at 11:26 AM, Cyan Ogilvie  wrote:
> This is my first patch, so I hope I've got the process right for submitting
> patches.

You're doing great.  I suspect we do want to either (1) reword what
you've done in English, rather than writing it as code, or at least
(2) add some SGML markup to the code.  Our next CommitFest starts in
just over a week, so you should receive some more specific feedback
pretty soon.

Also, if you'd like to help review someone else's patch, that would be great.

http://archives.postgresql.org/pgsql-rrreviewers/2011-06/msg00000.php

-- 
Robert Haas
EnterpriseDB: http://www.enterprisedb.com
The Enterprise PostgreSQL Company

WIP: AuthenticationMD5 protocol documentation clarification