Pro PHP Security: From Application Security Principles to the Implementation of XSS Defenses, Second Edition

Protecting Databases

We have been discussing controls over file and directory access in general, based on either operating system or php.ini settings. We turn now to managing access to the special files and directories associated with MySQL databases, partly because there are special problems involved in doing so, and partly as preparation for the next section of this chapter.

Whole books could be written on this topic, so we can cover only the basics here. But since PHP and MySQL work hand-in-hand so often, some understanding of these concepts for protecting databases is important for every programmer. For a more advanced discussion of this topic, a book we like (although it is not specific to MySQL) is Morris Lewis's SQL Server Security Distilled ...