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# Installation

phpMyAdmin does not apply any special security methods to the MySQL database server. It is still the system administrator’s job to grant permissions on the MySQL databases properly. phpMyAdmin’s Users page can be used for this.

Warning

Mac users should note that if you are on a version before Mac OS X, StuffIt unstuffs with Mac formats. So you’ll have to resave as in BBEdit to Unix style ALL phpMyAdmin scripts before uploading them to your server, as PHP seems not to like Mac-style end of lines character (“`\r`”).

## Linux distributions

phpMyAdmin is included in most Linux distributions. It is recommended to use distribution packages when possible - they usually provide integration to your distribution and you will automatically get security updates from your distribution.

### Debian

Debian’s package repositories include a phpMyAdmin package, but be aware that the configuration file is maintained in `/etc/phpmyadmin` and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

### OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE already comes with phpMyAdmin package, just install packages from the openSUSE Build Service.

### Ubuntu

Ubuntu ships phpMyAdmin package, however if you want to use recent version, you can use packages from PPA for Michal Čihař.

### Gentoo

Gentoo ships the phpMyAdmin package, both in a near stock configuration as well as in a `webapp-config` configuration. Use `emerge dev-db/phpmyadmin` to install.

### Mandriva

Mandriva ships the phpMyAdmin package in their `contrib` branch and can be installed via the usual Control Center.

### Fedora

Fedora ships the phpMyAdmin package, but be aware that the configuration file is maintained in `/etc/phpMyAdmin/` and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

### Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux itself and thus derivatives like CentOS don’t ship phpMyAdmin, but the Fedora-driven repository Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux (EPEL) is doing so, if it’s enabled. But be aware that the configuration file is maintained in `/etc/phpMyAdmin/` and may differ in some ways from the official phpMyAdmin documentation.

## Installing on Windows

The easiest way to get phpMyAdmin on Windows is using third party products which include phpMyAdmin together with a database and web server such as XAMPP.

You can find more of such options at Wikipedia.

## Quick Install

1. Choose an appropriate distribution kit from the phpmyadmin.net Downloads page. Some kits contain only the English messages, others contain all languages. We’ll assume you chose a kit whose name looks like `phpMyAdmin-x.x.x -all-languages.tar.gz`.
2. Ensure you have downloaded a genuine archive, see Verifying phpMyAdmin releases.
3. Untar or unzip the distribution (be sure to unzip the subdirectories): `tar -xzvf phpMyAdmin_x.x.x-all-languages.tar.gz` in your webserver’s document root. If you don’t have direct access to your document root, put the files in a directory on your local machine, and, after step 4, transfer the directory on your web server using, for example, ftp.
4. Ensure that all the scripts have the appropriate owner (if PHP is running in safe mode, having some scripts with an owner different from the owner of other scripts will be a problem). See 4.2 What’s the preferred way of making phpMyAdmin secure against evil access? and 1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error “No input file specified” when trying to run phpMyAdmin. for suggestions.
5. Now you must configure your installation. There are two methods that can be used. Traditionally, users have hand-edited a copy of `config.inc.php`, but now a wizard-style setup script is provided for those who prefer a graphical installation. Creating a `config.inc.php` is still a quick way to get started and needed for some advanced features.

### Manually creating the file

To manually create the file, simply use your text editor to create the file `config.inc.php` (you can copy `config.sample.inc.php` to get a minimal configuration file) in the main (top-level) phpMyAdmin directory (the one that contains `index.php`). phpMyAdmin first loads `libraries/config.default.php` and then overrides those values with anything found in `config.inc.php`. If the default value is okay for a particular setting, there is no need to include it in `config.inc.php`. You’ll probably need only a few directives to get going; a simple configuration may look like this:

    <?php
    $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = 'ba17c1ec07d65003';  // use here a value of your choice

    $i=0;
    $i++;
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'cookie';
    ?>

Or, if you prefer to not be prompted every time you log in:

    <?php

    $i=0;
    $i++;
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']          = 'root';
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']      = 'cbb74bc'; // use here your password
    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']     = 'config';
    ?>

For a full explanation of possible configuration values, see the Configuration of this document.

### Using Setup script

Instead of manually editing `config.inc.php`, you can use phpMyAdmin’s setup feature. First you must manually create a folder `config` in the phpMyAdmin directory. This is a security measure. On a Linux/Unix system you can use the following commands:

    cd phpMyAdmin
    mkdir config                        # create directory for saving
    chmod o+rw config                   # give it world writable permissions

And to edit an existing configuration, copy it over first:

    cp config.inc.php config/           # copy current configuration for editing
    chmod o+w config/config.inc.php     # give it world writable permissions

Note

Debian and Ubuntu have simplified this setup and all you need to do is to execute /usr/sbin/pma-configure.

On other platforms, simply create the folder and ensure that your web server has read and write access to it. 1.26 I just installed phpMyAdmin in my document root of IIS but I get the error “No input file specified” when trying to run phpMyAdmin. can help with this.

Next, open your browser and visit the location where you installed phpMyAdmin, with the `/setup` suffix. If you have an existing configuration, use the `Load` button to bring its content inside the setup panel. Note that changes are not saved to disk until you explicitly choose ``Save`` from the Configuration area of the screen. Normally the script saves the new `config.inc.php` to the `config/` directory, but if the webserver does not have the proper permissions you may see the error “Cannot load or save configuration.” Ensure that the `config/` directory exists and has the proper permissions - or use the `Download` link to save the config file locally and upload it (via FTP or some similar means) to the proper location.

Once the file has been saved, it must be moved out of the `config/` directory and the permissions must be reset, again as a security measure:

    mv config/config.inc.php .         # move file to current directory
    chmod o-rw config.inc.php          # remove world read and write permissions
    rm -rf config                      # remove not needed directory

Note

Debian and Ubuntu have simplified this setup and all you need to do is to execute /usr/sbin/pma-secure.

Now the file is ready to be used. You can choose to review or edit the file with your favorite editor, if you prefer to set some advanced options which the setup script does not provide.

1. If you are using the `auth_type` “config”, it is suggested that you protect the phpMyAdmin installation directory because using config does not require a user to enter a password to access the phpMyAdmin installation. Use of an alternate authentication method is recommended, for example with HTTP–AUTH in a .htaccess file or switch to using `auth_type` cookie or http. See the ISPs, multi-user installations for additional information, especially 4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives “Access denied” when using HTTP authentication..
2. Open the main phpMyAdmin directory in your browser. phpMyAdmin should now display a welcome screen and your databases, or a login dialog if using HTTP or cookie authentication mode.
3. You should deny access to the `./libraries` and `./setup/lib` subfolders in your webserver configuration. Such configuration prevents from possible path exposure and cross side scripting vulnerabilities that might happen to be found in that code. For the Apache webserver, this is often accomplished with a .htaccess file in those directories.
4. It is generally a good idea to protect a public phpMyAdmin installation against access by robots as they usually can not do anything good there. You can do this using `robots.txt` file in root of your webserver or limit access by web server configuration, see 1.42 How can I prevent robots from accessing phpMyAdmin?.

## Verifying phpMyAdmin releases

Since July 2015 all phpMyAdmin releases are cryptographically signed by the releasing developer, who is currently Marc Delisle. His key id is 0x81AF644A, his PGP fingerprint is:

    436F F188 4B1A 0C3F DCBF 0D79 FEFC 65D1 81AF 644A

and you can get more identification information from https://keybase.io/lem9. You should verify that the signature matches the archive you have downloaded. This way you can be sure that you are using the same code that was released.

Each archive is accompanied with `.asc` files which contains the PGP signature for it. Once you have both of them in the same folder, you can verify the signature:

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.4.9-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri Jun 12 13:09:58 2015 CEST using RSA key ID 81AF644A
    gpg: Can't check signature: No public key

As you can see gpg complains that it does not know the public key. At this point you should do one of the following steps:

- Download the keyring from our download server, then import it with:

    $ gpg --import phpmyadmin.keyring

- Download and import the key from one of the key servers:

    $ gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 81AF644A
    gpg: requesting key 81AF644A from hkp server pgp.mit.edu
    gpg: key 81AF644A: public key "Marc Delisle <marc@infomarc.info>" imported
    gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
    gpg: Total number processed: 1
    gpg:               imported: 1  (RSA: 1)

This will improve the situation a bit - at this point you can verify that the signature from the given key is correct but you still can not trust the name used in the key:

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.4.9-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri Jun 12 13:09:58 2015 CEST using RSA key ID 81AF644A
    gpg: Good signature from "Marc Delisle <marc@infomarc.info>" [unknown]
    gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
    gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
    Primary key fingerprint: 436F F188 4B1A 0C3F DCBF  0D79 FEFC 65D1 81AF 644A

The problem here is that anybody could issue the key with this name. You need to ensure that the key is actually owned by the mentioned person. The GNU Privacy Handbook covers this topic in the chapter Validating other keys on your public keyring. The most reliable method is to meet the developer in person and exchange key fingerprints, however you can also rely on the web of trust. This way you can trust the key transitively though signatures of others, who have met the developer in person. For example you can see how Marc’s key links to Linus’s key.

Once the key is trusted, the warning will not occur:

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.4.9-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri Jun 12 13:09:58 2015 CEST using RSA key ID 81AF644A
    gpg: Good signature from "Marc Delisle <marc@infomarc.info>" [full]

Should the signature be invalid (the archive has been changed), you would get a clear error regardless of the fact that the key is trusted or not:

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.4.9-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri Jun 12 13:09:58 2015 CEST using RSA key ID 81AF644A
    gpg: BAD signature from "Marc Delisle <marc@infomarc.info>" [unknown]

## phpMyAdmin configuration storage

For a whole set of additional features (bookmarks, comments, SQL-history, tracking mechanism, PDF-generation, column contents transformation, etc.) you need to create a set of special tables. Those tables can be located in your own database, or in a central database for a multi-user installation (this database would then be accessed by the controluser, so no other user should have rights to it).

### Zero configuration

In many cases, this database structure can be automatically created and configured. This is called “Zero Configuration” mode and can be particularly useful in shared hosting situations. “Zeroconf” mode is on by default, to disable set `$cfg['ZeroConf']` to false.

The following three scenarios are covered by the Zero Configuration mode:

- When entering a database where the configuration storage tables are not present, phpMyAdmin offers to create them from the Operations tab.
- When entering a database where the tables do already exist, the software automatically detects this and begins using them. This is the most common situation; after the tables are initially created automatically they are continually used without disturbing the user; this is also most useful on shared hosting where the user is not able to edit `config.inc.php` and usually the user only has access to one database.
- When having access to multiple databases, if the user first enters the database containing the configuration storage tables then switches to another database, phpMyAdmin continues to use the tables from the first database; the user is not prompted to create more tables in the new database.

### Manual configuration

Please look at your `./sql/` directory, where you should find a file called create_tables.sql. (If you are using a Windows server, pay special attention to 1.23 I’m running MySQL on a Win32 machine. Each time I create a new table the table and column names are changed to lowercase!).

If you already had this infrastructure and:

- upgraded to MySQL 4.1.2 or newer, please use `sql/upgrade_tables_mysql_4_1_2+.sql`.
- upgraded to phpMyAdmin 4.3.0 or newer from 2.5.0 or newer (<= 4.2.x), please use `sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql`.

and then create new tables by importing `sql/create_tables.sql`.

You can use your phpMyAdmin to create the tables for you. Please be aware that you may need special (administrator) privileges to create the database and tables, and that the script may need some tuning, depending on the database name.

After having imported the `sql/create_tables.sql` file, you should specify the table names in your `config.inc.php` file. The directives used for that can be found in the Configuration.

You will also need to have a controluser ( `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser']` and `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controlpass']` settings) with the proper rights to those tables. For example you can create it using following statement:

    GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE ON <pma_db>.* TO 'pma'@'localhost'  IDENTIFIED BY 'pmapass';

## Upgrading from an older version

Never extract the new version over an existing installation of phpMyAdmin; we had evidence of problems caused by this.

Simply copy `config.inc.php` from your previous installation into the newly unpacked one. Configuration files from old versions may require some tweaking as some options have been changed or removed. For compatibility with PHP 5.3 and later, remove a `set_magic_quotes_runtime(0);` statement that you might find near the end of your configuration file.

You should not copy `libraries/config.default.php` over `config.inc.php` because the default configuration file is version- specific.

If you have upgraded your MySQL server from a version previous to 4.1.2 to version 5.x or newer and if you use the phpMyAdmin configuration storage, you should run the SQL script found in `sql/upgrade_tables_mysql_4_1_2+.sql`.

If you have upgraded your phpMyAdmin to 4.3.0 or newer from 2.5.0 or newer (<= 4.2.x) and if you use the phpMyAdmin configuration storage, you should run the SQL script found in `sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql`.

Do not forget to clear the browser cache and to empty the old session by logging out and logging in again.

## Using authentication modes

HTTP and cookie authentication modes are recommended in a multi-user environment where you want to give users access to their own database and don’t want them to play around with others. Nevertheless be aware that MS Internet Explorer seems to be really buggy about cookies, at least till version 6. Even in a single-user environment, you might prefer to use HTTP or cookie mode so that your user/password pair are not in clear in the configuration file.

HTTP and cookie authentication modes are more secure: the MySQL login information does not need to be set in the phpMyAdmin configuration file (except possibly for the `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['controluser']`). However, keep in mind that the password travels in plain text, unless you are using the HTTPS protocol. In cookie mode, the password is stored, encrypted with the AES algorithm, in a temporary cookie.

Then each of the true users should be granted a set of privileges on a set of particular databases. Normally you shouldn’t give global privileges to an ordinary user, unless you understand the impact of those privileges (for example, you are creating a superuser). For example, to grant the user real_user with all privileges on the database user_base:

    GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON user_base.* TO 'real_user'@localhost IDENTIFIED BY 'real_password';

What the user may now do is controlled entirely by the MySQL user management system. With HTTP or cookie authentication mode, you don’t need to fill the user/password fields inside the `$cfg['Servers']`.

### HTTP authentication mode

- Uses HTTP Basic authentication method and allows you to log in as any valid MySQL user.
- Is supported with most PHP configurations. For IIS (ISAPI) support using CGI PHP see 1.32 Can I use HTTP authentication with IIS?, for using with Apache CGI see 1.35 Can I use HTTP authentication with Apache CGI?.
- See also 4.4 phpMyAdmin always gives “Access denied” when using HTTP authentication. about not using the .htaccess mechanism along with ‘HTTP‘ authentication mode.

### Cookie authentication mode

- Username and password are stored in cookies during the session and password is deleted when it ends.
- With this mode, the user can truly log out of phpMyAdmin and log back in with the same username.
- If you want to allow users to enter any hostname to connect (rather than only servers that are configured in `config.inc.php`), see the `$cfg['AllowArbitraryServer']` directive.
- As mentioned in the Requirements section, having the `mcrypt` extension will speed up access considerably, but is not required.

### Signon authentication mode

- This mode is a convenient way of using credentials from another application to authenticate to phpMyAdmin to implement single signon solution.
- The other application has to store login information into session data (see `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonSession']`) or you need to implement script to return the credentials (see `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`).
- When no credentials are available, the user is being redirected to `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonURL']`, where you should handle the login process.

The very basic example of saving credentials in a session is available as `examples/signon.php`:

    <?php
    /* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
    /**
     * Single signon for phpMyAdmin
     *
     * This is just example how to use session based single signon with
     * phpMyAdmin, it is not intended to be perfect code and look, only
     * shows how you can integrate this functionality in your application.
     *
     * @package    PhpMyAdmin
     * @subpackage Example
     */

    /* Need to have cookie visible from parent directory */
    session_set_cookie_params(0, '/', '', false);
    /* Create signon session */
    $session_name = 'SignonSession';
    session_name($session_name);
    // Uncomment and change the following line to match your $cfg['SessionSavePath']
    //session_save_path('/foobar');
    session_start();

    /* Was data posted? */
    if (isset($_POST['user'])) {
        /* Store there credentials */
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_user'] = $_POST['user'];
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_password'] = $_POST['password'];
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_host'] = $_POST['host'];
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_port'] = $_POST['port'];
        /* Update another field of server configuration */
        $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_cfgupdate'] = array('verbose' => 'Signon test');
        $id = session_id();
        /* Close that session */
        session_write_close();
        /* Redirect to phpMyAdmin (should use absolute URL here!) */
        header('Location: ../index.php');
    } else {
        /* Show simple form */
        header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
        echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' . "\n";
        ?>
        <!DOCTYPE HTML>
        <html lang="en" dir="ltr">
        <head>
        <link rel="icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
        <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
        <meta charset="utf-8" />
        <title>phpMyAdmin single signon example</title>
        </head>
        <body>
        <?php
        if (isset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'])) {
            echo '<p class="error">';
            echo $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'];
            echo '</p>';
        }
        ?>
        <form action="signon.php" method="post">
        Username: <input type="text" name="user" /><br />
        Password: <input type="password" name="password" /><br />
        Host: (will use the one from config.inc.php by default)
        <input type="text" name="host" /><br />
        Port: (will use the one from config.inc.php by default)
        <input type="text" name="port" /><br />
        <input type="submit" />
        </form>
        </body>
        </html>
        <?php
    }
    ?>

Alternatively you can also use this way to integrate with OpenID as shown in `examples/openid.php`:

    <?php
    /* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
    /**
     * Single signon for phpMyAdmin using OpenID
     *
     * This is just example how to use single signon with phpMyAdmin, it is
     * not intended to be perfect code and look, only shows how you can
     * integrate this functionality in your application.
     *
     * It uses OpenID pear package, see http://pear.php.net/package/OpenID
     *
     * User first authenticates using OpenID and based on content of $AUTH_MAP
     * the login information is passed to phpMyAdmin in session data.
     *
     * @package    PhpMyAdmin
     * @subpackage Example
     */

    if (false === @include_once 'OpenID/RelyingParty.php') {
        exit;
    }

    /**
     * Map of authenticated users to MySQL user/password pairs.
     */
    $AUTH_MAP = array(
        'http://launchpad.net/~username' => array(
            'user' => 'root',
            'password' => '',
            ),
        );

    /**
     * Simple function to show HTML page with given content.
     *
     * @param string $contents Content to include in page
     *
     * @return void
     */
    function Show_page($contents)
    {
        header('Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8');
        echo '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>' . "\n";
        ?>
        <!DOCTYPE HTML>
        <html lang="en" dir="ltr">
        <head>
        <link rel="icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
        <link rel="shortcut icon" href="../favicon.ico" type="image/x-icon" />
        <meta charset="utf-8" />
        <title>phpMyAdmin OpenID signon example</title>
        </head>
        <body>
        <?php
        if (isset($_SESSION) && isset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_error_message'])) {
            echo '<p class="error">' . $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_message'] . '</p>';
            unset($_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_message']);
        }
        echo $contents;
        ?>
        </body>
        </html>
        <?php
    }

    /* Need to have cookie visible from parent directory */
    session_set_cookie_params(0, '/', '', false);
    /* Create signon session */
    $session_name = 'SignonSession';
    session_name($session_name);
    session_start();

    // Determine realm and return_to
    $base = 'http';
    if (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] == 'on') {
        $base .= 's';
    }
    $base .= '://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . ':' . $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT'];

    $realm = $base . '/';
    $returnTo = $base . dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']);
    if ($returnTo[/*overload*/mb_strlen($returnTo) - 1] != '/') {
        $returnTo .= '/';
    }
    $returnTo .= 'openid.php';

    /* Display form */
    if (!count($_GET) && !count($_POST) || isset($_GET['phpMyAdmin'])) {
        /* Show simple form */
        $content = '<form action="openid.php" method="post">
    OpenID: <input type="text" name="identifier" /><br />
    <input type="submit" name="start" />
    </form>
    </body>
    </html>';
        Show_page($content);
        exit;
    }

    /* Grab identifier */
    if (isset($_POST['identifier'])) {
        $identifier = $_POST['identifier'];
    } else if (isset($_SESSION['identifier'])) {
        $identifier = $_SESSION['identifier'];
    } else {
        $identifier = null;
    }

    /* Create OpenID object */
    try {
        $o = new OpenID_RelyingParty($returnTo, $realm, $identifier);
    } catch (OpenID_Exception $e) {
        $contents = "<div class='relyingparty_results'>\n";
        $contents .= "<pre>" . $e->getMessage() . "</pre>\n";
        $contents .= "</div class='relyingparty_results'>";
        Show_page($contents);
        exit;
    }

    /* Redirect to OpenID provider */
    if (isset($_POST['start'])) {
        try {
            $authRequest = $o->prepare();
        } catch (OpenID_Exception $e) {
            $contents = "<div class='relyingparty_results'>\n";
            $contents .= "<pre>" . $e->getMessage() . "</pre>\n";
            $contents .= "</div class='relyingparty_results'>";
            Show_page($contents);
            exit;
        }

        $url = $authRequest->getAuthorizeURL();

        header("Location: $url");
        exit;
    } else {
        /* Grab query string */
        if (!count($_POST)) {
            list(, $queryString) = explode('?', $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        } else {
            // I hate php sometimes
            $queryString = file_get_contents('php://input');
        }

        /* Check reply */
        $message = new OpenID_Message($queryString, OpenID_Message::FORMAT_HTTP);

        $id = $message->get('openid.claimed_id');

        if (!empty($id) && isset($AUTH_MAP[$id])) {
            $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_user'] = $AUTH_MAP[$id]['user'];
            $_SESSION['PMA_single_signon_password'] = $AUTH_MAP[$id]['password'];
            session_write_close();
            /* Redirect to phpMyAdmin (should use absolute URL here!) */
            header('Location: ../index.php');
        } else {
            Show_page('<p>User not allowed!</p>');
            exit;
        }
    }

If you intend to pass the credentials using some other means than, you have to implement wrapper in PHP to get that data and set it to `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`. There is very minimal example in `examples/signon-script.php`:

    <?php
    /* vim: set expandtab sw=4 ts=4 sts=4: */
    /**
     * Single signon for phpMyAdmin
     *
     * This is just example how to use script based single signon with
     * phpMyAdmin, it is not intended to be perfect code and look, only
     * shows how you can integrate this functionality in your application.
     *
     * @package    PhpMyAdmin
     * @subpackage Example
     */

    /**
     * This function returns username and password.
     *
     * It can optionally use configured username as parameter.
     *
     * @param string $user User name
     *
     * @return array
     */
    function get_login_credentials($user)
    {
        /* Optionally we can use passed username */
        if (!empty($user)) {
            return array($user, 'password');
        }

        /* Here we would retrieve the credentials */
        $credentials = array('root', '');

        return $credentials;
    }

See also

`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']`, `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonSession']`, `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`, `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonURL']`

### Config authentication mode

- This mode is sometimes the less secure one because it requires you to fill the `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']` and `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']` fields (and as a result, anyone who can read your `config.inc.php` can discover your username and password).
- In the ISPs, multi-user installations section, there is an entry explaining how to protect your configuration file.
- For additional security in this mode, you may wish to consider the Host authentication `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order']` and `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules']` configuration directives.
- Unlike cookie and http, does not require a user to log in when first loading the phpMyAdmin site. This is by design but could allow any user to access your installation. Use of some restriction method is suggested, perhaps a .htaccess file with the HTTP-AUTH directive or disallowing incoming HTTP requests at one’s router or firewall will suffice (both of which are beyond the scope of this manual but easily searchable with Google).

### Swekey authentication mode

The Swekey is a low cost authentication USB key that can be used in web applications. When Swekey authentication is activated, phpMyAdmin requires the users’s Swekey to be plugged before entering the login page (currently supported for cookie authentication mode only). Swekey Authentication is disabled by default. To enable it, add the following line to `config.inc.php`:

    $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey.conf';

You then have to create the `swekey.conf` file that will associate each user with their Swekey Id. It is important to place this file outside of your web server’s document root (in the example, it is located in `/etc`). Feel free to use it with your own users’ information. If you want to purchase a Swekey please visit https://www.phpmyadmin.net/auth_key/ since this link provides funding for phpMyAdmin.

A self documented sample file is provided in the file `examples/swekey.sample.conf`:

    # This is a typical file used to enable Swekey hardware authentication.
    #
    # To activate the Swekey authentication add the following line to your config.inc.php file.
    #       $cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config'] = '/etc/swekey-pma.conf';
    # Then rename this file "swekey-pma.conf" and copy it to the /etc directory.
    # Add all the Swekey ids you want to grant access to in the file.
    # After each Swekey id put the corresponding user name.
    #
    # If you don't know the id of a Swekey just visit http://www.swekey.com?sel=support
    # while your Swekey is connected.
    #
    # If you need to purchase a Swekey please visit https://www.phpmyadmin.net/auth_key/
    # since this link provides funding to PhpMyAdmin.
    #

    0000000000000000000000000000763A:root
    000000000000000000000000000089E4:steve
    0000000000000000000000000000231E:scott

    #
    # It is recommended to include the following lines to contact the
    # authentication servers in SSL mode.
    #

    SERVER_CHECK=https://auth-check-ssl.musbe.net
    SERVER_RNDTOKEN=https://auth-rnd-gen-ssl.musbe.net
    SERVER_STATUS=https://auth-status-ssl.musbe.net

    #
    # The path of the root certificate file used to ensure a secure
    # communication with the authentication servers in SSL mode.
    # If not specified, will use musbe-ca.crt found in your
    # phpMyAdmin/libraries/auth/swekey.
    #

    #CA_FILE=/var/http-root/phpmyadmin/libraries/auth/swekey/musbe-ca.crt

    #
    # If your server receives many login requests, you can enable the random
    # token caching to accelerate the authentication process.
    # Token caching is enabled by default.
    #

    #ENABLE_TOKEN_CACHE=0

See also

`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_swekey_config']`

## Securing your phpMyAdmin installation

The phpMyAdmin team tries hard to make the application secure, however there are always ways to make your installation more secure:

- Remove the `setup` directory from phpMyAdmin, you will probably not use it after the initial setup.

- Properly choose an authentication method - Cookie authentication mode is probably the best choice for shared hosting.

- In case you don’t want all MySQL users to be able to access phpMyAdmin, you can use `$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules']` to limit them.

- Consider hiding phpMyAdmin behind an authentication proxy, so that users need to authenticate prior to providing MySQL credentials to phpMyAdmin. You can achieve this by configuring your web server to request HTTP authentication. For example in Apache this can be done with:

      AuthType Basic
      AuthName "Restricted Access"
      AuthUserFile /usr/share/phpmyadmin/passwd
      Require valid-user

  Once you have changed the configuration, you need to create a list of users which can authenticate. This can be done using the htpasswd utility:

      htpasswd -c /usr/share/phpmyadmin/passwd username

- If you are afraid of automated attacks, enabling Captcha by `$cfg['CaptchaLoginPublicKey']` and `$cfg['CaptchaLoginPrivateKey']` might be an option.

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