Make use of predefined roles

MediumLevel 1Manual reviewpostgres

Description

PostgreSQL provides a set of predefined roles that provide access to certain commonly needed privileged capabilities and information. Administrators can GRANT these roles to users and/or other roles in their environment, providing those users with access to the specified capabilities and information.

How it is checked

Audit method: Manual review

This recommendation cannot be checked automatically. A scan lists it with these instructions when you pass --include-manual.

Run SELECT rolname FROM pg_roles WHERE rolsuper IS TRUE; and, for each superuser other than the bootstrap account, decide whether predefined roles (pg_read_all_data, pg_write_all_data, pg_monitor, pg_signal_backend, pg_checkpoint, pg_maintain, ...) would suffice. Unneeded superusers are a fail.

How it is fixed

Fix method: Guidance or infrastructure patch

GRANT the suitable predefined role(s) to the account, then ALTER ROLE <role> NOSUPERUSER;

Properties

Operating systems: Any
Tags: postgresdatabaseauthorizationsuperusermanual
Reference: CIS PostgreSQL 18 Benchmark v1.0.0 - 4.9 Make use of predefined roles