Enhancing PostgreSQL Security with the Credcheck Extension

The credcheck PostgreSQL extension offers a range of credential checks to enhance security during user creation, password changes, and user renaming. By implementing this extension, you can define a comprehensive set of rules to manage credentials more effectively:

• Allow a specific set of credentials: Specify which credentials are permissible.
• Reject certain types of credentials: Define rules to disallow certain credentials.
• Deny easily cracked passwords: Prevent the use of weak passwords that can be easily compromised.
• Enforce password expiration: Require passwords to expire after a minimum number of days.
• Define a password reuse policy: Set rules to prevent the reuse of previous passwords.
• Limit authentication failures: Specify the number of failed authentication attempts allowed before a user is banned.

All these checks are provided as configurable parameters within the extension. By default, the extension's settings do not enforce complex checks, allowing most credentials to be used. However, you can customize the settings to enforce stricter rules by using the command:

SET credcheck.<check-name> TO <value>;

These settings can only be modified by a superuser, ensuring that only authorized personnel can change the credential policies.

For more information and to access the extension, visit the credcheck GitHub repository.

By utilizing the credcheck extension, you can significantly enhance the security of your PostgreSQL environment, ensuring that only strong, compliant credentials are used.