Why GRANT ALL is bad
Aug 06, 2010
Bypasses read_only
Bypasses init_connect
Can Disable binary logging
Change configuration dynamically
No reserved connection
User Permissions
This is how a user should be created, granting only the required permissions to a given schema.
CREATE USER goodguy@localhost IDENTIFIED BY ’sakila’;
GRANT CREATE,SELECT,INSERT,UPDATE,DELETE ON odtug.* TO goodguy@localhost;
This is what is commonly seen.
CREATE USER superman@’%';
GRANT ALL ON *.* TO superman@’%';
Bypasses read_only
Many MySQL replication environments rely on ensuring the MySQL slave is consistent with the master. Did you know that an application can bypass this security when read_only=true is used?
$ mysql -ugoodguy -psakila odtug
mysql> insert into test1(id) values(1);
ERROR 1290 (HY000): The MySQL server is running with the –read-only option so it cannot execute this statement
$ mysql -usuperman odtug
mysql> insert into test1(id) values(1);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)
GRANT ALL is bad for data consistency.
Bybasses init_connect
A common practices used for UTF8 communications is to use the init_connect configuration variable.
#my.cnf
[client]
init_connect=SET NAMES utf8
$ mysql -ugoodguy -psakila odtug
mysql> SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE ‘ch%’;
+————————–+———-+
| Variable_name | Value |
+————————–+———-+
| character_set_client | utf8 |
| character_set_connection | utf8 |
| character_set_database | latin1 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | utf8 |
| character_set_server | latin1 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
+————————–+———-+
$ mysql -usuperman odtug
mysql> SHOW SESSION VARIABLES LIKE ‘character%’;
+————————–+———-+
| Variable_name | Value |
+————————–+———-+
| character_set_client | latin1 |
| character_set_connection | latin1 |
| character_set_database | latin1 |
| character_set_filesystem | binary |
| character_set_results | latin1 |
| character_set_server | latin1 |
| character_set_system | utf8 |
+————————–+———-+
GRANT ALL is bad for data integrity.
Disables Binary Logging.
$ mysql -usuperman odtug
mysql> SHOW MASTER STATUS;
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
| File | Position | Binlog_Do_DB | Binlog_Ignore_DB |
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
| binary-log.000001 | 354 | | |
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
mysql> DROP TABLE time_zone_leap_second;
mysql> SET SQL_LOG_BIN=0;
mysql> DROP TABLE time_zone_name;
mysql> SET SQL_LOG_BIN=1;
mysql> DROP TABLE time_zone_transition;
mysql> SHOW MASTER STATUS;
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
| File | Position | Binlog_Do_DB | Binlog_Ignore_DB |
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
| binary-log.000001 | 674 | | |
+——————-+———-+————–+——————+
$ mysqlbinlog binary-log.000001 –start-position=354 –stop-position=674
# at 354
#100604 18:00:08 server id 1 end_log_pos 450 Query thread_id=1 exec_time=0 error_code=0
use mysql/*!*/;
SET TIMESTAMP=1275688808/*!*/;
DROP TABLE time_zone_leap_second
/*!*/;
# at 579
#100604 18:04:31 server id 1 end_log_pos 674 Query thread_id=2 exec_time=0 error_code=0
use mysql/*!*/;
SET TIMESTAMP=1275689071/*!*/;
DROP TABLE time_zone_transition
/*!*/;
DELIMITER ;
# End of log file
ROLLBACK /* added by mysqlbinlog */;
Should that statement be run on MySQL Slaves?
Is the binary log used for any level of auditing?
GRANT ALL is bad for slave consistency.
The reserved connection
MySQL reserved one connection for an administrator to be able to login to a server. For example.
$ mysql -uroot
mysql> show global variables like ‘max_connections’;
+—————–+——-+
| Variable_name | Value |
+—————–+——-+
| max_connections | 3 |
+—————–+——-+
1 row in set (0.07 sec)
mysql> show global status like ‘threads_connected’;
+——————-+——-+
| Variable_name | Value |
+——————-+——-+
| Threads_connected | 4 |
+——————-+——-+
mysql> SHOW PROCESSLIST;
+—-+——+———–+——-+———+——+————+—————
| Id | User | Host | db | Command | Time | State | Info
+—-+——+———–+——-+———+——+————+—————
| 13 | good | localhost | odtug | Query | 144 | User sleep | UPDATE test1 …
| 14 | good | localhost | odtug | Query | 116 | Locked | select * from test1
| 15 | good | localhost | odtug | Query | 89 | Locked | select * from test1
| 15 | root | localhost | odtug | Query | 89 | Locked | SHOW PROCESSLIST
However if all application users are already using the SUPER privilege, the administrator will get.
$ mysql -uroot
ERROR 1040 (HY000): Too many connections
There is no way to be able to login and see what’s happening, or kill threads for example. In this case you either wait, or you are required to kill the mysqld process, or fine the client threads to kill. The result of the former may lead to a corrupt database requiring additional recovery.
GRANT ALL is bad for system administration and monitoring.
Conclusion
Don’t use GRANT ALL for application users. For more information, including why I only listed just 5 issues, check out my MySQL Idiosyncrasies that BITE presentation. I will also be presenting this talk at MySQL Sunday at Oracle Open World in September.

