From 13b729ca5267b58005f1ca9c873a86c2b0db3591 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Neil Conway Date: Wed, 25 May 2005 02:56:15 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Editing for the new "Encryption Options" section of the manual. --- doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml | 42 ++++++++++++++++++--------------------- 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 23 deletions(-) diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml index cb533a9cfe..d5c76830ba 100644 --- a/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml +++ b/doc/src/sgml/runtime.sgml @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ @@ -4965,9 +4965,8 @@ $ kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid`PostgreSQL offers encryption at several levels, and provides flexibility in protecting data from disclosure due to database server theft, unscrupulous administrators, and - insecure networks. Encryption might also be required by government - regulation, for example, for medical records or financial - transactions. + insecure networks. Encryption might also be required to secure + sensitive data such as medical records or financial transactions. @@ -4978,12 +4977,11 @@ $ kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid` By default, database user passwords are stored as MD5 hashes, so - the administrator can not determine the actual password assigned + the administrator cannot determine the actual password assigned to the user. If MD5 encryption is used for client authentication, the unencrypted password is never even temporarily present on the - server because the client MD5 encrypts it before being sent across - the network. MD5 is a one-way encryption --- there is no - decryption algorithm. + server because the client MD5 encrypts it before being sent + across the network. @@ -5025,13 +5023,13 @@ $ kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid` This mechanism prevents unecrypted data from being read from the - drives if the drives or the entire computer is stolen. This - mechanism does nothing to protect against attacks while the - filesystem is mounted, because when mounted, the operating system - provides a unencrypted view of the data. However, to mount the - filesystem, you need some way for the encryption key to be passed - to the operating system, and sometimes the key is stored somewhere - on the host that mounts the disk. + drives if the drives or the entire computer is stolen. This does + not protect against attacks while the filesystem is mounted, + because when mounted, the operating system provides an unencrypted + view of the data. However, to mount the filesystem, you need some + way for the encryption key to be passed to the operating system, + and sometimes the key is stored somewhere on the host that mounts + the disk. @@ -5048,8 +5046,8 @@ $ kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid` @@ -5079,9 +5077,9 @@ $ kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid`kill -INT `head -1 /usr/local/pgsql/data/postmaster.pid` - If the system administrator can not be trusted, it is necessary + If the system administrator cannot be trusted, it is necessary for the client to encrypt the data; this way, unencrypted data never appears on the database server. Data is encrypted on the client before being sent to the server, and database results have - to be decrypted on the client before being used. Peter Wayner's - book, Translucent Databases, discusses how to - do this in considerable detail. + to be decrypted on the client before being used.