From trust to Tokens: A Short History of PostgreSQL Authentication | POSETTE 2026
PostgreSQL accumulated a dozen authentication methods over decades, evolving from trust to external token-based identity providers.
“Every method you'll see on the pg_hba.conf file solved a real problem at a real moment sometime in the past.”
A POSETTE 2026 conference talk by Microsoft's Murat Tuncer traces the history of PostgreSQL authentication, explaining why methods from trust and peer to passwords, SCRAM, LDAP, Kerberos, certificates, and tokens each exist. It is an educational database engineering talk with little direct AI industry signal.