Should I Change MySQL Password with cPanel Password

Do you have a cPanel web hosting control panel? Do you need to or want to change your cPanel password? Are you wondering if you should tick the box that says, “Allow MySQL password change“?

Is there a reason that this is ticked by default? Are you wondering, “Do I want to change my MySQL password?

The short answer is, yes, likely you do want to leave it ticked – likely you do want the the MySQL password changed as well.  Lets look in more detail.

Here is why.

When a cPanel is created, the username and password for that cPanel can also be used to access MySQL databases and functions. So in this way, the passwords are synced between cPanel and MySQL.

When you need to change the cPanel password, it is likely better to keep this tick box checked and have the MySQL password changed as well. Why?

This will keep the cPanel and the global MySQL passwords synced – allowing your cPanel to access phpMyAdmin and any other database service from cPanel without having to enter a different password. Also, if you do not change the MySQL password, then your old password can still be used to access MySQL. One would assume that you changed the cPanel password in order to stop someone from using it to access your services. Leaving the MySQL password unchanged means someone can still use that old password to access your databases.

Why would you want to leave that box unchecked?

If you have any scripts using that MySQL password to access a database, then changing the MySQL password will prevent those scripts from accessing the database. However, it is better practice to not use that password for your scripts for better security, for this reason, so you have more control over access to your resources. What you would want to do it create a separate database user for each database, and use that database user’s password in any script accessing that database. If you are not very technically inclined, and/or if you installed something like a content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, Concrete5, or any other automated installation from your cPanel, this is how they would normally be set-up – so it would be fine to tick the box and have the global MySQL database changed with the cPanel password change.

What else is changed?

The following are changed when you change the cPanel password:

  • System
  • FTP
  • Mail
  • MySQL (if tick box is checked)

Feedback?

If this is helpful, or if you have a different understand of how this works, please feel free to comment below. I am not a server tech by profession, just a web designer and front-end developer who works with cPanel a lot.

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