Chapter 52. OAuth Validator Modules

Table of Contents

52.1. Safely Designing a Validator Module
52.1.1. Validator Responsibilities
52.1.2. General Coding Guidelines
52.1.3. Authorizing Users (Usermap Delegation)
52.2. Initialization Functions
52.3. OAuth Validator Callbacks
52.3.1. Startup Callback
52.3.2. Validate Callback
52.3.3. Shutdown Callback

PostgreSQL provides infrastructure for creating custom modules to perform server-side validation of OAuth bearer tokens. Because OAuth implementations vary so wildly, and bearer token validation is heavily dependent on the issuing party, the server cannot check the token itself; validator modules provide the integration layer between the server and the OAuth provider in use.

OAuth validator modules must at least consist of an initialization function (see Section 52.2) and the required callback for performing validation (see Section 52.3.2).

Warning

Since a misbehaving validator might let unauthorized users into the database, correct implementation is crucial for server safety. See Section 52.1 for design considerations.