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title: How to secure MySQL for production deployments. | daily.dev
description: A comprehensive guide to hardening production MySQL deployments, covering OS and network-level protections, secure installation practices, running MySQL as a...
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# How to secure MySQL for production deployments.

**[Teleport](https://daily.dev/sources/teleport)** · 25 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments

## Summary

A comprehensive guide to hardening production MySQL deployments, covering OS and network-level protections, secure installation practices, running MySQL as a non-root user, encrypting binary logs, authentication method selection (caching_sha2_password vs auth_socket), password management policies, enforcing encrypted TLS connections with X.509 certificates, privilege and role management (including the 66 built-in privileges and risky ones like FILE, PROCESS, SUPER), partial revokes, and mitigating SQL injection. Closes with a pitch for Teleport Database Access as a way to manage secure database access without exposing databases publicly.

## Full article

daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: <https://goteleport.com/blog/securing-access-to-production-mysql-databases>

## Questions this post answers

### How do I restrict which IP addresses can connect to a MySQL database user account?

Specify the allowed host or IP range directly when creating the user account, for example CREATE USER 'developer'@'192.168.0.100/255.255.255.0'. As of MySQL 8.0.23, IPv4 host values can also be written using CIDR notation, such as 198.51.100.44/24, giving more flexible network-level restriction of database access beyond firewall rules.

_daily.dev surfaces practical database hardening techniques for engineers locking down MySQL access._

### What is the most secure default authentication method in MySQL 8.0?

caching_sha2_password is the default authentication method in MySQL server version 8.0, implementing SHA-256 authentication with server-side caching for better performance. It is considered the most secure and fastest authentication option MySQL offers by default, compared to alternatives like auth_socket or the older mysql_native_password plugin.

_Engineers deciding on database authentication schemes can track MySQL security guidance on daily.dev._

### Which MySQL privileges are most dangerous if granted to the wrong user?

FILE, PROCESS, SUPER, GRANT_OPTION, and ALTER are the riskiest of MySQL's 66 built-in privileges. FILE lets a user read or write arbitrary server files such as /etc/passwd; PROCESS exposes other users' running queries including passwords; SUPER (now deprecated in favor of dynamic privileges) can change global server config; GRANT_OPTION lets users escalate by granting their own privileges; ALTER can be abused to subvert the privilege system by renaming tables.

_daily.dev helps teams reviewing least-privilege database access stay current on MySQL security practices._

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---

Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#authentication](https://daily.dev/tags/authentication), [#sql](https://daily.dev/tags/sql), [#mysql](https://daily.dev/tags/mysql)

[View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-secure-mysql-for-production-deployments--xfqtw0zzr)

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