Howto: Remote Root Access to MySql

Update: This post has garnered a lot of attention.  So I’d like to clarify up front: this article is not about hacking into other databases.  This is about configuring a server you own so that you can access it from a remote machine on the same network.  It is completely insecure and should never be used for production deployments.

Very quickly, another thing that I typically like to do on my server boxes is allow root access to my Mysql database from remote computers. I don’t forward the port through my router and I use a very secure password (doesn’t everyone?). I don’t want to create a security risk, I just want to connect to the database from other computers around my network - particularly from my laptop.

Again (like most of my instructions) these instructions are for Ubuntu - currently Edgy Eft.

sudo apt-get install mysql-server

Ubuntu installs Mysql at /etc/mysql/ by default. Now we need to set a root password.

mysql -u root

SET PASSWORD FOR 'ROOT'@'LOCALHOST"
> = PASSWORD('new_password');

Now while we’re still here, we’ll create a new HOST for root and allow root to login from anywhere.

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%' > IDENTIFIED BY 'password' WITH GRANT OPTION;
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit

We’re almost done now. We just have to tell Mysql to allow remote logins.

sudo vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf

Out-of-the-box, MySQL only allows connections from the localhost identified by the IP Address of 127.0.0.1.  We need to remove that restriction, so find the line that says

bind-address = 127.0.0.1

and comment it out.

# bind-address = 127.0.0.1

That’s all there is to it! Now get your favorite MySql client and start developing.