1. Secure the gpadmin system user. Greenplum requires a UNIX user id to install and initialize the Greenplum Database system. This system user is referred to as gpadmin in the Greenplum documentation. This gpadmin user is the default database superuser in Greenplum Database, as well as the file system owner of the Greenplum installation and its underlying data files. This default administrator account is fundamental to the design of Greenplum Database. The system cannot run without it, and there is no way to limit the access of this gpadmin user id. This gpadmin user can bypass all security features of Greenplum Database. Anyone who logs on to a Greenplum host as this user id can read, alter or delete any data; including system catalog data and database access rights. Therefore, it is very important to secure the gpadmin user id and only provide access to essential system administrators. Administrators should only log in to Greenplum as gpadmin when performing certain system maintenance tasks (such as upgrade or expansion). Database users should never log on as gpadmin, and ETL or production workloads should never run as gpadmin. 2. Assign a distinct role to each user that logs in. For logging and auditing purposes, each user that is allowed to log in to Greenplum Database should be given their own database role. For applications or web services, consider creating a distinct role for each application or service. 3. Use groups to manage access privileges. 4. Limit users who have the SUPERUSER role attribute. Roles that are superusers bypass all access privilege checks in Greenplum Database, as well as resource queuing. Only system administrators should be given superuser rights. |
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