On Wed, Sep 27, 2023 at 07:09:02PM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 12, 2023 at 08:36:53PM -0400, Stephen Frost wrote:
> > > When the server is on a non-Windows platform then the server must use
> > > GSSAPI
> > > if it wants to authenticate the client either via Kerberos or via Active
> > > Directory. A client on a Windows platform that connects to a non-Windows
> > > Postgresql server can either use SSPI (strongly encouraged) or GSS (much
> > > more difficult to set up) if it wants to authenticate via Kerberos or
> > > Active
> > > Directory. A client from a non-Windows platform must use GSS if it wants
> > > to
> > > authenticate via Kerberos or Active Directory."
> >
> > Rather than work in negative, I feel like it might make more sense to
> > work in positives? That is, perhaps this instead:
> >
> > On Windows platforms, SSPI is the default and most commonly used
> > mechanism. Note that an SSPI client can authenticate to a server which
> > is using either SSPI or GSSAPI, and a GSSAPI client can authenticate to
> > a server which is using either SSPI or GSSAPI. Generally speaking,
> > clients and servers on Windows are recommended to use SSPI while clients
> > and servers on Unix (non-Windows) platforms use GSSAPI.
>
> I developed the attached patch.
My first attempt was too terse, so here is a more detailed version,
attached.
--
Bruce Momjian <[email protected]> https://momjian.us
EDB https://enterprisedb.com
Only you can decide what is important to you.
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/client-auth.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/client-auth.sgml
index a72f80f033..9d1e7d63ef 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/client-auth.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/client-auth.sgml
@@ -1505,10 +1505,12 @@ omicron bryanh guest1
<literal>negotiate</literal> mode, which will use
<productname>Kerberos</productname> when possible and automatically
fall back to <productname>NTLM</productname> in other cases.
- <productname>SSPI</productname> authentication only works when both
- server and client are running <productname>Windows</productname>,
- or, on non-Windows platforms, when <productname>GSSAPI</productname>
- is available.
+ <productname>SSPI</productname> and <productname>GSSAPI</productname>
+ interoperate as clients and servers, e.g., an
+ <productname>SSPI</productname> client can authenticate to an
+ <productname>GSSAPI</productname> server. It is recommended to use
+ <productname>SSPI</productname> on Windows clients and servers and
+ <productname>GSSAPI</productname> on non-Windows platforms.
</para>
<para>
