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Re: Minor Mystery - phpmyadmin and mysql.user


On 9/2/25 12:58 PM, Joe wrote:
On Tue, 2 Sep 2025 08:10:28 -0500
Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:


On 9/1/25 11:33 AM, Joe wrote:

On Mon, 1 Sep 2025 07:04:17 -0500
Kent West <westk@acu.edu> wrote:
 

I'm just toying around, learning a lot, with Apache2, phpmyadmin,
mariadb, SQL in general ... absolutely don't know what I'm doing.

But I've gotten some basics accomplished; I've created a 'pma' user
in mariadb to tinker with mariadb, and have gotten ppmyadmin to
open in Firefox and show my databases, and have discovered that I
can see who my users in mariadb are with a SQL command like
'SELECT user FROM mysql.user;'.

I wanted to browse the navigation tree in the left-hand pane of the
phpmyadmin web page, to see if I could directly see the users in
the mysql.user table (understanding that "mysql.user" is a "path"
to the "mysql" database, and the "user" table within that db).

But the "user" table is not there. I spent considerable time last
night and this morning with two AIs (Gemini, and duck.ai) trying to
make this table visible (the AI's insist the table is there, but
simply not visible for some reason), but nothing they suggested
made the table visible in the navigation tree, although the data
in that table is accessible via SQL (either through the phpmyadmin
GUI, or the mariadb cli client, or the mycli client). (The AIs
also insist I should not manipulate the user table directly, which
is why it's hidden, but I'm not worried about manipulating that
data; I just want to see the table there instead of just accepting
that it's there; besides, if I hork up my
mariadb/Apache2/phpmyadmin setup, nothing is lost; this is a
throw-away setup for my learning.) The AIs seem to think this is
Debian-specific behavior.

Why can't I see this table in the navigation tree, and how do I
force the system to let me see it there?
 

The first question is: what user are you?  


I created a user, "pma", who has "ALL PRIVILEGES", who I am logged
into in phpmyadmin. As mentioned, he can query the "user" table, and
he can see it with a SQL "SHOW TABLES;" command in the SQL "Show
Query box"; he just can't see it from within the phpmyadmin GUI
navigation tree.



OK, in my phpmyadmin tree I'm seeing 30 tables in the mysql database,
including user. This still looks like privileges at the moment.

When you view any table in database mysql and enter:

select * from `user`

 in the phpmyadmin SQL box, are the privileges for root and pma
identical? Are both shown with Host as localhost? The User names and
password hashes should be different, but nothing else.

Interesting that you see `user` in your phpmyadmin navigation tree.

Yes, as far as I can see, the two users have identical privs.

SELECT * FROM `mysql`.`user` WHERE `User` IN ('root', 'pma');

Full texts
Host User Password Select_priv Insert_priv Update_priv Delete_priv Create_priv Drop_priv Reload_priv Shutdown_priv Process_priv File_priv Grant_priv References_priv Index_priv Alter_priv Show_db_priv Super_priv Create_tmp_table_priv Lock_tables_priv Execute_priv Repl_slave_priv Repl_client_priv Create_view_priv Show_view_priv Create_routine_priv Alter_routine_priv Create_user_priv Event_priv Trigger_priv Create_tablespace_priv Delete_history_priv ssl_type ssl_cipher x509_issuer x509_subject max_questions max_updates max_connections max_user_connections plugin authentication_string password_expired is_role default_role max_statement_time
Edit Edit Copy Copy Delete Delete localhost root invalid Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y



0 0 0 0 mysql_native_password invalid N N
0.000000
Edit Edit Copy Copy Delete Delete localhost pma *20B6C940622623300FC066ED9B3F7A78D8E94E88 Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y Y



0 0 0 0 mysql_native_password *20B6C940622623300FC066ED9B3F7A78D8E94E88 N N
0.000000





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