MySQL root password special characters

[MajorLancelot]

At this page: MySQL Root Password - Version 74 Documentation - cPanel Documentation, cPanel clearly stated:

do not use asterisks (*), periods (.), or any other special characters in your MySQL root password. If you do, phpMyAdmin will not function.

Now customers often us the Password Generator to generate passwords.

They also use MySQL Database Wizard to create databases where they are presented with the aforementioned Password Generator.

For MySQL databases, to meet the minimum conditions required for a strong password, the password must contain at least:

• Nine characters
• Two uppercase letters
• Two lowercase letters
• Two numbers
• Two of the following allowed special characters:

  ‘ ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ - + = { } [ ] / < > , . ; ? ' : | (space)

There doesn't seem to be any restrictions on the length of a password or characters MYSQL supported especially since MySQL validate_password plugin.

What is cPanel official position on this?

Do we ask customers not to use special characters too and use only longer passwords?

If the above is affirmative, shouldn't cPanel has a tool-tip that inform cPanel users of this?

 

[cPanelLauren]

Hello @MajorLancelot


This information is only valid for the root mysql user, it is not valid for the cPanel accounts so your cPanel users would not be interacting here. For information on MySQL databases/users for the users you can look here: MySQL Databases - Version 78 Documentation - cPanel Documentation


Thanks!

 

[MajorLancelot]

Hello @MajorLancelot


This information is only valid for the root MySQL user, it is not valid for the cPanel accounts so your cPanel users would not be interacting here.


Thanks!

Thanks, Lauren!

But is the operative word here "relevant" (instead of "valid") for the root MySQL user?

Just need to understand why the rationale behind this decision and why it will be relevant to the root user, and not a cPanel user.

Thanks!

 

[cPanelLauren]

I believe this was a caveat of the way we use PHPMyAdmin with WHM/cPanel. As to why it's different for root user as opposed to the account level user I am assuming the root user has different privileges it can access and maintain all of the accounts users and databases.