pg_tde

This is an experimental encrypted access method for PostgreSQL 16.

Latest test release

To download the latest build of the main branch, use the HEAD release from releases.

Builds are available in a tar.gz format, containing only the required files, and as a deb package. The deb package is built againts the pgdg16 release, but this dependency is not yet enforced in the package.

Installation steps

Build and install the plugin with make from source, or download a release and install the package
pg_tde needs to be loaded at the start time. The extension requires additional shared memory; therefore, add the pg_tde value for the shared_preload_libraries parameter and restart the postgresql instance.

Use the ALTER SYSTEM command from psql terminal to modify the shared_preload_libraries parameter.

ALTER SYSTEM SET shared_preload_libraries = 'pg_tde';

Start or restart the postgresql instance to apply the changes.

On Debian and Ubuntu:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql.service

Create the extension using the CREATE EXTENSION command. Using this command requires the privileges of a superuser or a database owner. Connect to psql as a superuser for a database and run the following command:

CREATE EXTENSION pg_tde;

Set the location of the keyring configuration file in postgresql.conf: pg_tde.keyringConfigFile = '/where/to/put/the/keyring.json'
Create the keyring configuration file (see example keyring configuration)
Start or restart the postgresql instance to apply the changes.

On Debian and Ubuntu:

sudo systemctl restart postgresql.service

Keyring configuration

{
        'provider': 'file',
        'datafile': '/tmp/pgkeyring',
}

Currently the keyring configuration only supports the file provider, with a single datafile parameter. This datafile is created and managed by Postgres, the only requirement is that postgres should be able to write to the specified path.

This setup is intended for developmenet, and stores the keys unencrypted in the specified data file.

Build from source

To build pg_tde from source code, you require the following on Ubuntu/Debian:

sudo apt install make gcc libjson-c-dev postgresql-server-dev-16

Install or build postgresql 16 (see reference commit below)
If postgres is installed in a non standard directory, set the PG_CONFIG environment variable to point to the pg_config executable
Clone the repository, build and install it with the following commands:

git clone git://github.com/Percona-Lab/postgres-tde-ext

Compile and install the extension

cd postgres-tde-ext
make USE_PGXS=1
sudo make USE_PGXS=1 install

Install from package

Download the latest release package

wget https://github.com/Percona-Lab/postgres-tde-ext/releases/download/latest/pgtde-pgdg16.deb

Install the package

sudo dpkg -i pgtde-pgdg16.deb

Run in Docker

You can find docker images built from the current main branch on Docker Hub. Images build on top of postgres:16 official image. To run it:

docker run --name pg-tde -e POSTGRES_PASSWORD=mysecretpassword -d perconalab/postgres-tde-ext

It builds and adds pg_tde extension to Postgres 16. Relevant postgresql.conf and tde_conf.json are created in /etc/postgresql/ inside the container. This dir is exposed as volume.

See https://hub.docker.com/_/postgres on usage.

You can also build a docker image manually with:

docker build . -f ./docker/Dockerfile -t your-image-name

Helper functions

The extension provides the following helper functions:

pgtde_is_encrypted(tablename)

Returns t if the table is encrypted (uses the pg_tde access method), or f otherwise.

Base commit

This is based on the heap code as of the following commit:

commit a81e5516fa4bc53e332cb35eefe231147c0e1749 (HEAD -> REL_16_STABLE, origin/REL_16_STABLE)
Author: Amit Kapila <akapila@postgresql.org>
Date:   Wed Sep 13 09:48:31 2023 +0530

    Fix the ALTER SUBSCRIPTION to reflect the change in run_as_owner option.

enersys / postgres-tde-ext