Need to grant secure, temporary access to a production database—without sharing static credentials? Watch this video in the Five minutes to zero standing access series.
You’ll learn how to give developers or analysts scoped, time-bound PostgreSQL access to AWS RDS using CLI or Slack—while maintaining approvals, audit trails, and automatic revocation.
Giving developers or analysts access to production databases is one of the riskiest, most contentious things in cloud security. It’s also one of the most common.
The challenge isn’t just limiting access. It’s enabling it safely, precisely, and temporarily. You need to make sure users only see what they’re supposed to, don’t linger longer than necessary, and don’t blow things up by accident.
P0 makes that possible. In this demo, you’ll see how to grant fine-grained, time-bound PostgreSQL access on AWS RDS, using either the CLI or Slack - all backed by scoped roles, approvals, and full auditability.
In most environments, database access is still handled through long-lived credentials and ad hoc processes. Static usernames and passwords are passed around. Bastion hosts remain wide open. There’s often no time-bound control, and little granularity in terms of what data is actually exposed.
That means teams are constantly balancing between moving fast and managing risk - and more often than not, settling for overbroad, invisible, and persistent access.
P0 changes that. It brings structured, governed, and time-boxed access to databases like PostgreSQL - without slowing anyone down.
In this walkthrough, you’ll learn how to set up P0 to control access to a PostgreSQL instance running on AWS RDS. The workflow starts with the P0 CLI, where a user requests access to a scoped PostgreSQL role - in this case, with read-only permissions to just the customer table.
After confirming that the database exists and grabbing the connection details, the user tries to connect through the CLI - but the system blocks access until the integration is configured and a request is approved.
Once the PostgreSQL integration is added inside the P0 console, the CLI connection is retried. That triggers a Slack approval notification. The user selects a five-minute access window, and once approved, access is granted. They connect, verify their user identity, and confirm that access is limited to the customer table only - no more, no less.
Here’s how the process plays out, from CLI request to database access:
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The same flow can be fully initiated through Slack.
The user opens the P0 Slack bot, specifies the PostgreSQL instance, selects the appropriate scoped role, and enters a time duration. Once approved, access is granted - no terminal needed.
Whether your team prefers CLI or Slack, the experience is consistent:
Safe, scoped, and ephemeral access - with no credentials ever shared.
Other solutions may give you database access control - but few do it with this level of granularity and governance.
With P0, access is:
It’s access that disappears by default - not one that lingers until someone remembers to revoke it.
If you’ve ever struggled with how to grant safe, temporary access to production databases - especially for debugging or data QA - this video demo shows you how to do it right!
Control and govern privileged access across all identities with P0 Security.
