Re: Bugtraq: Having Fun With PostgreSQL

Tom Lane wrote:
> Steve Atkins <steve@blighty.com> writes:
>   
>> On Jun 23, 2007, at 11:03 AM, Magnus Hagander wrote:
>>     
>>> Out of curiosity, how do other databases deal with this?
>>>       
>
>   
>> MySQL installs with an empty root password for access from
>> localhost or the machines own IP address. It also installs an
>> account with network access to any database beginning with
>> "test" and possibly some more ill-defined accounts with local
>> access.
>>     
>
> FWIW, on mysql 5.0.42 I see only "root@localhost" and "root@127.0.0.1"
> in a fresh-out-of-the-box installation; not sure where you got these
> other accounts, maybe a distro-specific modification?
>
> But the bottom line is that mysql's out-of-the-box behavior is
> *exactly* like our trust-for-local-connections behavior.  Anyone
> on the box can do "mysql -u root ..." and the server will accept
> them as being superuser (they don't even have to know to enter an
> empty password, in my experience).
>   


This is all documented. For 5.1.x see: 
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/default-privileges.html

Perhaps we should add a section to our docs on securing the database.

cheers

andredw