The passwordcheck_cracklib is like the regular PostgreSQL passwordcheck extension, except it is built with cracklib. Unlike the original module, this one has more strict password checks. The passwordcheck_cracklib module checks users' passwords whenever they are set with CREATE ROLE or ALTER ROLE. If a password is considered too weak, it will be rejected and the command will terminate with an error.

Installing with DNF / Zypper

If you are already using PostgreSQL RPM repository, you can install it via

dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_19 (for PostgreSQL 19)
dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_18 (for PostgreSQL 18)
dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_17 (for PostgreSQL 17)
dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_16 (for PostgreSQL 16)
dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_15 (for PostgreSQL 15)
dnf install passswordcheck_cracklib_14 (for PostgreSQL 14)

Please replace dnf with zypper on SLES 16, SLES 15 and OpenSuSE Leap 16.

Installing by compiling source code

To build it, just do this:

USE_PGXS=1 make
USE_PGXS=1 make install

If you encounter an error such as:

make: pg_config: Command not found

Be sure that you have pg_config installed and in your path. If you used a package management system such as RPM to install PostgreSQL, be sure that the -devel package is also installed. If necessary tell the build process where to find it. Edit Makefile, and change PG_CONFIG variable:

PG_CONFIG=/path/to/pg_config

followed by the

USE_PGXS=1 make
USE_PGXS=1 make install

pg_config is usually under /usr/pgsql-18/bin/pg_config on RHEL/Rocky/AlmaLinux/Fedora. Replace 18 with your major PostgreSQL version.

Using the module

To enable this module, add '$libdir/passwordcheck_cracklib' to shared_preload_libraries in postgresql.conf, then restart the server.

More information

For more details, please read the manual of the original module:

https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/static/passwordcheck.html