TMA-POSTGRES-2.3
Disable PostgreSQL Command History
LowLevel 1Automatedpostgres
Description
On Linux/UNIX, the PostgreSQL client logs most interactive statements to a history file. The default PostgreSQL history file is named .psql_history in the user's home directory. The PostgreSQL command history should be disabled. Run as root; counts .psql_history files under /home, /root and the postgres home that are not symlinks to /dev/null.
How it is checked
Audit method: Shell command
shell
[ "$(id -u)" -eq 0 ] || exit 1; h=$(getent passwd postgres | cut -d: -f6); l=$(find /home /root $h -maxdepth 3 -name .psql_history 2>/dev/null); n=0; for f in $l; do [ "$(readlink "$f")" = /dev/null ] || n=$((n+1)); done; echo "$n"- Expected output
0
How it is fixed
Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch
For each user: rm -f ~<user>/.psql_history, then either add '\set HISTFILE /dev/null' to ~<user>/.psqlrc or ln -s /dev/null ~<user>/.psql_history; optionally set PSQL_HISTORY=/dev/null in /etc/environment.
Properties
- Operating systems
- Any
- Tags
- postgresdatabasecredentialshistory
- Reference
- CIS PostgreSQL 18 Benchmark v1.0.0 - 2.3 Disable PostgreSQL Command History
Check this host
Run this on a machine you are allowed to audit. The scan is read-only.
shell
tmaegis scan --target postgres