Security, Authentication, RBAC

Authentication model

MonkDB supports authenticated access across SQL endpoints with host-based/auth provider configuration.

Production guidance:

• Avoid broad trust authentication in production.
• Use strong password/cert-based flows.
• Restrict local development shortcuts to non-production profiles.

Authorization model (RBAC)

Privileges are granted to users/roles with scope controls.

Core privilege families:

• DQL (read/query)
• DML (insert/update/delete/copy from)
• DDL (create/alter/drop)
• AL (administrative operations)

Users and roles

Common lifecycle commands:

• CREATE USER, ALTER USER, DROP USER
• CREATE ROLE, ALTER ROLE, DROP ROLE
• GRANT, REVOKE, DENY

Row and column governance

MonkDB governance policies provide:

• Row filtering (scope='row_filter')
• Column masking (scope='column_mask')

This gives policy-based row-level and column-level control without application-only filtering.

Secure communications

Enable TLS/SSL for:

• HTTP endpoint
• PGWire endpoint
• Inter-node transport channel

Use mTLS for stricter node/client identity enforcement where required.

Hardening checklist

• Disable default/trust auth modes in production.
• Enforce least-privilege grants.
• Separate admin users from app users.
• Rotate passwords/certs.
• Audit high-risk statements and privilege changes.
• Gate local FDW access (fdw.allow_local=false unless required).