---
title: SSL
slug: /features/ssl
---

node-postgres supports TLS/SSL connections to your PostgreSQL server as long as the server is configured to support it. When instantiating a pool or a client you can provide an `ssl` property on the config object and it will be passed to the constructor for the [node TLSSocket](https://nodejs.org/api/tls.html#tls_class_tls_tlssocket).

## Self-signed cert

Here's an example of a configuration you can use to connect a client or a pool to a PostgreSQL server.

```js
const config = {
  database: 'database-name',
  host: 'host-or-ip',
  // this object will be passed to the TLSSocket constructor
  ssl: {
    rejectUnauthorized: false,
    ca: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/server-certificates/root.crt').toString(),
    key: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/client-key/postgresql.key').toString(),
    cert: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/client-certificates/postgresql.crt').toString(),
  },
}

import { Client, Pool } from 'pg'

const client = new Client(config)
await client.connect()
console.log('connected')
await client.end()

const pool = new Pool(config)
const pooledClient = await pool.connect()
console.log('connected')
pooledClient.release()
await pool.end()
```

## Usage with `connectionString`

If you plan to use a combination of a database connection string from the environment and SSL settings in the config object directly, then you must avoid including any of `sslcert`, `sslkey`, `sslrootcert`, or `sslmode` in the connection string. If any of these options are used then the `ssl` object is replaced and any additional options provided there will be lost.

```js
const config = {
  connectionString: 'postgres://user:password@host:port/db?sslmode=require',
  // Beware! The ssl object is overwritten when parsing the connectionString
  ssl: {
    rejectUnauthorized: false,
    ca: fs.readFileSync('/path/to/server-certificates/root.crt').toString(),
  },
}
```

## Channel binding

If the PostgreSQL server offers SCRAM-SHA-256-PLUS (i.e. channel binding) for TLS/SSL connections, you can enable this as follows:

```js
const client = new Client({ ...config, enableChannelBinding: true})
```

or

```js
const pool = new Pool({ ...config, enableChannelBinding: true})
```