Database administrators should use the following guidelines to keep passwords secure.
MySQL stores passwords for user accounts in the
mysql.user
system table. Access to this table
should never be granted to any nonadministrative accounts.
A user who has access to modify the plugin directory (the value
of the plugin_dir
system
variable) or the my.cnf
file that specifies
the plugin directory location can replace plugins and modify the
capabilities provided by plugins, including authentication
plugins.
Files such as log files to which passwords might be written should be protected. See Section 2.2.3, “Passwords and Logging”.