grant remote access of MySQL database from any IP address

Question

I am aware of this command:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON database.* TO 'user'@'yourremotehost' IDENTIFIED BY 'newpassword'; 

But then it only allows me to grant a particular IP address to access this remote MySQL database. What if I want it so that any remote host can access this MySQL database? How do I do that? Basically I am making this database public so everyone can access it.

Answer 1

TO 'user'@'%' 

% is a wildcard - you can also do '%.domain.com' or '%.123.123.123' and things like that if you need.

Answer 2

Enable Remote Access (Grant) Home / Tutorials / Mysql / Enable Remote Access (Grant) If you try to connect to your mysql server from remote machine, and run into error like below, this article is for you.

ERROR 1130 (HY000): Host ‘1.2.3.4’ is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server

Change mysql config

Start with editing mysql config file

vim /etc/mysql/my.cnf 

Comment out following lines.

#bind-address           = 127.0.0.1 #skip-networking 

If you do not find skip-networking line, add it and comment out it.

Restart mysql server.

~ /etc/init.d/mysql restart 

Change GRANT privilege

You may be surprised to see even after above change you are not getting remote access or getting access but not able to all databases.

By default, mysql username and password you are using is allowed to access mysql-server locally. So need to update privilege. (if you want to create a separate user for that purpose, you can use CREATE USER 'USERNAME'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD';)

Run a command like below to access from all machines. (Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD by your credentials.)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'USERNAME'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION; 

Run a command like below to give access from specific IP. (Replace USERNAME and PASSWORD by your credentials.)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'USERNAME'@'1.2.3.4' IDENTIFIED BY 'PASSWORD' WITH GRANT OPTION; 

You can replace 1.2.3.4 with your IP. You can run above command many times to GRANT access from multiple IPs.

You can also specify a separate USERNAME & PASSWORD for remote access.

You can check final outcome by:

SELECT * from information_schema.user_privileges where grantee like "'USERNAME'%"; 

Finally, you may also need to run:

mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES; 

Test Connection

From terminal/command-line:

mysql -h HOST -u USERNAME -pPASSWORD 

If you get a mysql shell, don’t forget to run show databases; to check if you have right privileges from remote machines.

Bonus-Tip: Revoke Access

If you accidentally grant access to a user, then better have revoking option handy.

Following will revoke all options for USERNAME from all machines:

mysql> REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES, GRANT OPTION FROM 'USERNAME'@'%'; Following will revoke all options for USERNAME from particular IP:  mysql> REVOKE ALL PRIVILEGES, GRANT OPTION FROM 'USERNAME'@'1.2.3.4'; Its better to check information_schema.user_privileges table after running REVOKE command. 

If you see USAGE privilege after running REVOKE command, its fine. It is as good as no privilege at all. I am not sure if it can be revoked.