V-261863
SV-261863r1000954_rule
CAT II
PostgreSQL must be able to generate audit records when privileges/permissions are retrieved.
From: Crunchy Data Postgres 16 Security Technical Implementation Guide (V1R2)
Description
<VulnDiscussion>Under some circumstances, it may be useful to monitor who/what is reading privilege/permission/role information. Therefore, it must be possible to configure auditing to do this. PostgreSQLs typically make such information available through views or functions.
This requirement addresses explicit requests for privilege/permission/role membership information. It does not refer to the implicit retrieval of privileges/permissions/role memberships that PostgreSQL continually performs to determine if any and every action on the database is permitted.</VulnDiscussion><FalsePositives></FalsePositives><FalseNegatives></FalseNegatives><Documentable>false</Documentable><Mitigations></Mitigations><SeverityOverrideGuidance></SeverityOverrideGuidance><PotentialImpacts></PotentialImpacts><ThirdPartyTools></ThirdPartyTools><MitigationControl></MitigationControl><Responsibility></Responsibility><IAControls></IAControls>
Check Procedure
Note: The following instructions use the PGLOG environment variable. Refer to supplementary content APPENDIX-I for instructions on configuring PGLOG.
As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), check if pgaudit is enabled by running the following SQL:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c "SHOW shared_preload_libraries"
If pgaudit is not found in the results, this is a finding.
As the database administrator (shown here as "postgres"), list all role memberships for the database:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ psql -c "\du"
Verify the query was logged:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ cat ${PGLOG?}/<latest_log>
This should, as an example, return (among other rows):
< 2024-02-01 19:13:38.276 UTC psql postgres postgres [local] 15639 >LOG: duration: 29.932 ms statement: SELECT r.rolname, r.rolsuper, r.rolinherit,
r.rolcreaterole, r.rolcreatedb, r.rolcanlogin,
r.rolconnlimit, r.rolvaliduntil
, r.rolreplication
, r.rolbypassrls
FROM pg_catalog.pg_roles r
WHERE r.rolname !~ '^pg_'
ORDER BY 1;
If audit records are not produced, this is a finding.
Fix Text
Note: The following instructions use the PGDATA and PGVER environment variables. Refer to APPENDIX-F for instructions on configuring PGDATA and APPENDIX-H for PGVER.
PostgreSQL can be configured to audit these requests using pgaudit. Refer to supplementary content APPENDIX-B for documentation on installing pgaudit.
With pgaudit installed the following configurations can be made:
$ sudo su - postgres
$ vi ${PGDATA?}/postgresql.conf
Add the following parameters (or edit existing parameters):
pgaudit.log_catalog = 'on'
pgaudit.log = 'read'
Note: For this requirement the pgaudit.log must contain 'read' however APPENDIX-C suggests setting pgaudit.log='ddl, role, read, write' to fulfill all requirements.
As the system administrator, reload the server with the new configuration:
$ sudo systemctl reload postgresql-${PGVER?}
CCI Reference
CCI-000172- Created
- 2026-04-07 20:08:12
- Last Updated
- 2026-04-07 20:08:12