Attach OS user information to requests

[georgipeev]

It would be beneficial if clickhouse-connect included the OS user information in the requests made to the Clickhouse server, as that would improve server-side functionality related to logging, usage, compliance, security, audit trails, etc. For example, the related clickhouse-driver library does so.

[genzgd]

Note that you can put whatever value you want (including the os.user or other identifying information) in the client_name argument when calling get_client, and that client name will be included in the HTTP User-Agent header. Using that header is closest we can get to the native protocol os_user field.

The default HTTP User-Agent header is set in clickhouse_connect/common.py

def build_client_name(client_name: str):
    product_name = get_setting('product_name')
    product_name = product_name.strip() + ' ' if product_name else ''
    client_name = client_name.strip() + ' ' if client_name else ''
    py_version = sys.version.split(' ', maxsplit=1)[0]
    return f'{client_name}{product_name}clickhouse-connect/{version()} (lv:py/{py_version}; os:{sys.platform})'

I'm a little nervous about automatically adding the os user to that string, both because it's already pretty long and there's arguably a security/privacy concern with passing that over the internet, but I could go either way. Is that the enhancement you're proposing?

[aadant]

I agree that the client_name is not the right place to add this information.
Actually CH query log has a os_user field, you can just use that. It also have a query_id. The driver should be able to override it.

[genzgd]

That os_user field will not be populated by clickhouse-connect. It's only populated when using the TCP Native protocol.

[aadant]

@genzgd good point, thanks ! I did not realize one was http protocol only and the other was native only.
see also #91

[aadant]

so I guess the only option is to add it to the http_user_agent enabled by default with an option to disable it.

FYI I saw that in a CH instance recently :

http_user_agent: ClickHouse-JdbcDriver/0.6.0-patch5 (Windows 11/10.0; OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM/JBR-17.0.11+1-1207.24-jcef; HttpURLConnection; rv:067ae0b)

[aadant]

The concern is security behind a load balancer, if you have a generic user and a production issue, you want as much information as possible to trace it without going to potentially massive logs + it gets to the system.query_log. We get that "feature" with the clickhouse-driver over the native protocol and clickhouse-client.