Adding MySQL User Accounts

For adding a new user to MySQL you just need to add a new entry to user table in database mysql.

Below is an example of adding new user guest with SELECT, INSERT and UPDATE privileges with the password guest123 the SQL query is :

root@host# mysql -u root -p
Enter password:*******
mysql> use mysql;
Database changed
 
mysql> INSERT INTO user 
          (host, user, password, 
           select_priv, insert_priv, update_priv) 
           VALUES ('localhost', 'guest', 
           PASSWORD('guest123'), 'Y', 'Y', 'Y');
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.20 sec)
 
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> SELECT host, user, password FROM user WHERE user = 'guest';
+-----------+---------+------------------+
| host      | user    | password         |
+-----------+---------+------------------+
| localhost | guest | 6f8c114b58f2ce9e |
+-----------+---------+------------------+
1 row in set (0.00 sec)

When adding a new user remember to encrypt the new password using PASSWORD() function provided by MySQL. As you can see in the above example the password mypass is encrypted to 6f8c114b58f2ce9e.

Notice the FLUSH PRIVILEGES statement. This tells the server to reload the grant tables. If you don’t use it then you won’t be able to connect to mysql using the new user account at least until the server is rebooted.

You can also specify other privileges to a new user by setting the values of following columns in user table to ‘Y’ when executing the INSERT query or you can update them later using UPDATE query.

Select_priv
Insert_priv
Update_priv
Delete_priv
Create_priv
Drop_priv
Reload_priv
Shutdown_priv
Process_priv
File_priv
Grant_priv
References_priv
Index_priv
Alter_priv

Another way of adding user account is by using GRANT SQL command; Following example will ada user “item” with password item123 for a particular database called w3m.

root@host# mysql -u root -p password;
Enter password:*******
mysql> use mysql;
Database changed
 
mysql> GRANT SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE,CREATE,DROP
    -> ON w3m.*
    -> TO 'item'@'localhost'
    -> IDENTIFIED BY 'item123';

This will also create an entry in mysql database table called user.

NOTE: MySQL does not terminate a command until you give a semi colon (;) at the end of SQL command.