Database Security Threats: Top 10 Tips to Secure MySQL

Lately there has been a lot of news about security breaches involving MySQL server databases. In this mysql tutorial we’ll go over top 10 mysql secure installation tips you can use to keep your MySQL server secure. These database security tips can also be applied as web application security tips – this sql tutorial will be useful for both developers and DBAs alike.

1) Start from web application security testing and web application user security. Make sure to use strong passwords for every account, and avoid password reuse.
2) To ensure proper mysql server access control, properly set up privileges for every user, consider limiting the features of specific accounts or locking them if they are not in use, and keep an eye on their activity at all times.
3) Make sure to secure the initial mysql server root account with a strong password, and never store passwords inside of your mysql server databases in plain text. Also, don’t grant any users access to the user table in the mysql database or mysql server as a whole. Following this piece of advice will help you get rid of the mysql access denied for user ‘root’@’localhost’ error.
4) It’s a good idea to provide your MySQL server with the password you will use to log in via mysql my.cnf or mysql my.ini for it not to be observed in the history of the command line. Remember – sometimes the easiest security measures will make attackers move on to an easier target. For the mysql my.cnf location and mysql my.ini location, read our sql interview questions and answers for experienced DBAs.
5) Avoid running MySQL install or the MySQL community server as the root user. The root user has the FILE privilege which can be abused to create files. This step is crucial to ensure mysql secure installation.
6) Consider sending passwords using SSL instead of sending them in plain text. Configure SSL on your mysql server, then use the REQUIRE SSL option when creating a user. Watch this sql tutorial in its entirety to learn how.
7) Making use of the password validation plugin provided by the MySQL server will ensure that all of your users have strong passwords. Enforce a HIGH password security policy for maximum security.
8) If you’re an enterprise user of the MySQL server, consider using the MySQL Enterprise Firewall to monitor and block suspicious activity within your MySQL database.
9) To strengthen your MySQL database via security controls, use the MySQL Enterprise Audit plugin.
10) Last but not least, backup your data regularly and make sure that your backups are recoverable. This mysql database tutorial will provide you with a couple of tools that can assist you in doing so, and these are:
* mysqldump
* mydumper
* mysqlpump
* Percona XtraBackup
Amongst others.

If you’ve enjoyed this mysql course, explore some of our mysql tutorial videos below:

1) mysql vs postgresql – which database to choose? https://youtube.com/shorts/ohyqV7KgqYk
2) database slowness reasons – why are sql queries slow? https://youtube.com/shorts/beLkSf0_Ms4
3) one of the most frequent sql interview questions and answers – sql subqueries: https://youtube.com/shorts/wUQmZJxMZRI
4) sql indexes explained – this sql tutorial video will go through sql indexes having a prefix type: https://youtube.com/shorts/SS-r1H7-i-s
5) big data tutorial – how to run big data on a mysql server (mysql, mariadb or percona server?) https://youtube.com/shorts/GurccdgcjL0

Below you will also find some of the most frequent sql interview questions and answers for experienced software engineers and DBAs:

Q: In a web application security context, what does a web application firewall do?
A: A web application firewall (WAF) protects web applications from attacks like the sql injection attack, cross site scripting, and others.

Q: What are the owasp top 10 2021 threats?
A: The owasp top 10 threats are as follows:
1) Broken Access Control
2) Cryptographic Failures
3) Injection
4) Insecure Design
5) Security Misconfiguration
6) Vulnerable and Outdated Components
7) Identification and Authentification Failures
8) Software and Data Integrity Failures
9) Security Logging and Monitoring Failures
10) SSRF.

Q: What’s the most common location to find the mysql my.cnf file?
A: /etc/my.cnf.

Q: How dangerous is SQL injection? How to protect our web applications from this attack?
A: SQL injection is one of the most dangerous attacks targeting applications today. To protect your web applications from sql injection, sanitize inputs and never provide user input to a database.

Q: What is the most frequently used type of SQL index?
A: A B-tree SQL index is used the most frequently in mysql server as well as other RDBMS systems.

MySQL variables: https://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/8.0/en/server-system-variables.html

Music:
Kevin MacLeod – Groundwork: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXnHCOzx6I
Kevin MacLeod’s channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSZXFhRIx6b0dFX3xS8L1yQ

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