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Before launch of a project, I reset the server's mysql root password. The colo that is hosting project wants the server's root database password stored in the .my.cnf file, in plain text, with the permissions set to 400. I just can't see how that is good security practice, but he said that it was something that was being done commonly.

Is it secure to store a the root database password in plain text in the .my.cnf file?

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  • "The colo...wants the server's root database password...in plain text" - (unless the hosting company has no access to the machine and it uses full disk disk encrpyion) this is not colo agreement. – symcbean Jun 1 '17 at 11:41
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Of course any password that is stored in plain text is a bad idea but the location of the file is in /etc/my.cnf so if a remote user had access to that file I think there would be more things to worry about than having your mysql password stolen. On the other hand if you are not the only one who has physical access to the system then you are still safe from others reading your file since your file permissions are 400, assuming no one escalated privileges on the system. I did some research about having your password in my.cnf file and it's true it's actually a pretty common practice.

By the way you need to make sure you don't actually edit the file thats located in the /etc/my.cnf which mysql server uses to boot up because if you do anyone can use the server with ALL privileges and ALL databases without a password. So instead create a file in your local /root directory call it my.cnf and make sure only root can read it (of course)

The easiest way to do this is to use a client section of the ~/.my.cnf file, and add the credentials inside that file. 

[client] 
user=root
password=somepassword

Like I said make sure the file is ONLY readable by root. –

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  • The easiest way to do this is to use a client section of the ~/.my.cnf file, and add the credentials inside that file. [client] user=root password=somepassword Like I said make sure the file is ONLY readable by root. – eof0100 Nov 13 '14 at 4:30
  • The thing left to worry about is the employees of the hosting company with root access. In a professional (business-to-business) environment, I'd add an legal layer of security, having some articles about logging and access of the hosting company's employees to your environment. – agtoever Nov 13 '14 at 7:39
  • @eof0100,Your comment is valuable and relevant to added in the answer body, so I did so. You may want to remove the comment. – amrx Jan 19 '17 at 1:05
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I am sorry but if they told me they wanted me to plain text my database password I would say "nope". Now I have heard on cPanel servers running phpMyAdmin use that file to install and uninstall Site Software, which I sorta understand, still think it can be done better. I have never placed my DB password in the .my.cnf thats just asking for a simple LFI attack.

In my opinion it is not safe, even with the permissions set to 600. chmod 600 .my.cnf

Edit: I thought about this more and I can see that this might be an acceptable method you want to invoke a client from a script that runs noninteractively, there is no opportunity to enter the password from the keyboard. On some systems, the first line of the script is read and interpreted (incorrectly) as your password.

But defiantly keep that file set on 600. regardless, I still feel its bad practice.

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  • Why would you want it writable (600) and not read only (400)? – Xander Nov 13 '14 at 3:30
  • @Xander I suppose either or is acceptable I have always done it in 600 but 400 as you have mentioned is probably safer seeing the situation. Sometimes 400 will mess things up later. – Cameron Does Things Nov 13 '14 at 3:33

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