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

Securing MySQL Accounts

The MySQL installation procedure creates a database named mysql, which in turn contains the grant tables that the server uses to determine which MySQL accounts can perform what actions. Specifically, the user table in the mysql database lists all valid accounts and indicates which global privileges they have, if any. This section provides some guidelines that you can use to evaluate existing accounts, and that you should keep in mind when creating new accounts. These guidelines apply to servers running on any platform.

A general set of principles for securing the MySQL accounts listed in your grant tables is as follows:

1. Remove anonymous accounts.
2. Make sure that each account has a password.
3. Don't grant global privileges ...