Hacker News Reader

Comment by zsims | Hacker News Reader

> In order for Aidmin to help you manage your database, we require that you share your database credentials with us.

Woah. This is a huge red flag for any company or enterprise.

Oh, I thought that this was a self-hostable thing since it was on GitHub. Nope, these are just docs for a SaaS that wants presumptively root access to the database (because you have to be able to delegate user roles inside of it)? Who in their right mind would use this, because even if the person who made it isn't evil, the second their systems get compromised every last row of PII from every client is vulnerable.

To the developer: please reconsider your approach, because as of right now nobody can use this and still have their customers trust them. To everyone else, until there's a 2.0 or self-hosted version of this, Hasura+Metabase was recommended for this in a HN thread last year and looks pretty neat, if not covering the exact same usecases.

(Yes, I realize that the same is true of a database hosted in AWS/Azure/GCP. But you can sue them if someone gets access to your data through them, and the US Government and every major bank uses one of those services, so I'd be more willing to believe in them vs a early stage startup).

It doesn't need root access, the RBAC is applied on top of the credentials Aidmin given.

I hear you on the approach, it is something I have been thinking about for a while.

If you want a self-hostable thing, https://www.adminer.org/ is a single PHP file you can put on a webserver and use to manage a database[1] that the webserver can talk to; put in the server name and credentials and have a low-effort useful GUI management tool.

[1] It claims: Works with MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, SQLite, MS SQL, Oracle, Elasticsearch, MongoDB, SimpleDB (plugin), Firebird (plugin), ClickHouse (plugin)

Sure, but why do something with a single PHP file if you can build a dozen microservices and get the same thing?

Yes, this is currently a big ask, and understandbly so.

There are a few SaaS companies that exist today which provide similar service, and they all require this level of access, unless you opt for their enterprise self hosted version.

I am probably going to release a self hosted version at some point.

What ? One can go to jail for this as this would mean deliberately breaking company security policies.

From the market research I have done so far, there are over 10 series B companies (some YC companies as well) that require exactly this kind of access.

Edit: They all offer an on-prem version, but only for enterprise ($$$$) customers.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com