Securing the initial mysql installation

When mysql is installed, the grant tables are created.

• accounts with the name root are created. The initial password are empty.
  • On Unix, both root accounts are for connections from the local host. Connections must be made from the local host by specifying a host name of localhost for one of the accounts, or the actual host name or IP number for the other

• two anonymous-user accounts are created, each with an empty user name. The anonymous accounts have no password, so anyone can use them to connect to the MySQL server.
  • On Unix, both anonymous accounts are for connections from the local host. Connections must be made from the local host by specifying a host name of localhost for one of the accounts, or the actual host name or IP number for the other. These accounts have all privileges for the test database and for other databases with names that start with test_.

root account password assignment:

shell> mysql -u root -p
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'localhost' = PASSWORD('newpwd');
mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'host_name' = PASSWORD('newpwd');

In the second SET PASSWORD statement, replace host_name with the name of the server host. This is the same host name that you used when you assigned the anonymous account passwords.

If the user table contains an account with User and Host values of 'root' and '127.0.0.1', use an additional SET PASSWORD statement to set that account's password:

mysql> SET PASSWORD FOR 'root'@'127.0.0.1' = PASSWORD('newpwd');

Anonymous Account Removal

If you prefer to remove the anonymous accounts instead, do so as follows:

shell> mysql -u root
mysql> DROP USER ''; (zonder spatie)

The DROP statement applies both to Windows and to Unix.

new users

After connecting to the server as root, you can add new accounts. The following statements use GRANT to set up four new accounts:

mysql> CREATE USER 'monty'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'monty'@'localhost'
   ->     WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> CREATE USER 'monty'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_pass';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'monty'@'%'
   ->     WITH GRANT OPTION;
mysql> CREATE USER 'admin'@'localhost';
mysql> GRANT RELOAD,PROCESS ON *.* TO 'admin'@'localhost';
mysql> CREATE USER 'dummy'@'localhost';