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Subject: Re: Admin party considered harmful
From: Jan Lehnardt <jan@apache.org>
In-Reply-To: 
 <CA+298UiL1VQcZ70ARrj4gOOko32=D6=Bi9Ymui-c9cmdFgmKwA@mail.gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 17 Apr 2016 14:24:27 +0200
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 <CA+298UiL1VQcZ70ARrj4gOOko32=D6=Bi9Ymui-c9cmdFgmKwA@mail.gmail.com>
To: dev@couchdb.apache.org


> On 17 Apr 2016, at 05:09, Paul Hammant <paul@hammant.org> wrote:
>=20
> (Cultural ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Considered_harmful)
>=20
> So AdminParty is fun for there 2 minute "hey this stuff is great" tour =
of
> CouchDB, but it leaves me (and others) worried that we don't know the =
52
> specialist knowledge things to do to lock down a couch install =
completely.
> You know: 443-only, a top-level administrator, sub administrators, =
regular
> accounts, different read vs write permissions, etc etc. We can't =
imagine
> going live with a CouchDB solution without that, and it makes us think =
we
> should look for other technologies when there is no cohesive 100% =
dev-team
> endorsed page on how to close down the party once and for all. Sooooo =
- *if
> that page exists, I can't find it*.


> Is the comummunity even in agreement - is it changes to default.ini, =
local.ini
> (server side), or is it a series of curl statements over the wire (and =
why)?

No need to be snide about this. A =E2=80=9CWhy are there two ways to =
configure
CouchDB?=E2=80=9D would have sufficed.

CouchDB has a config system. It is persisted in two .ini files. You can
change settings by editing local.ini and [re]starting CouchDB or without
restarting CouchDB using curl. The latter is rather beneficial in =
production
systems that don=E2=80=99t want to incur downtimes.

Changes done at runtime are stored in local.ini. When you install a =
newer
version of CouchDB new config variables can appear in default.ini. If =
the
install procedure finds an existing local.ini it will not replace it, so
local changes (hence the name) survive software upgrades.

As Bob pointed out, there is a security consideration with ini vs. curl:

If you were to start a CouchDB instance and then add an administrator =
via
curl, there is an ever so slight chance that someone else gets there =
before
you. The exact scenario is somewhat convoluted, so I won=E2=80=99t bore =
you with it.
Suffice it to say, creating an admin in local.ini before the first =
launch
of CouchDB completely avoids said issue.

* * *

If you don=E2=80=99t feel confident using CouchDB then I suggest you =
look for
alternative technology, or ask someone nicely to explain this to you,
but pressuring the dev team with an somewhat insulting email is not
appreciated here. Again, a =E2=80=9CI find the security system poorly =
documented,
can someone explain this to me?=E2=80=9D would have been much more =
productive.


Best
Jan
--
Apache CouchDB PMC Chair
http://couchdb.apache.org/conduct.html