Re: SSL Mysql over internet

[Jeff Bruns]

I recently downloaded the MySQL query browser onto my laptop because I was getting frustrated with using web based database GUI apps such as phpmyadmin.

Phpmyadmin is a good solution to security, provided you're using it over port 443 (https). I've created a mysql user, restricting the user to only localhost, used phpmyadmin over https to connect to the database. I've used PMA for years and finally decided to give something else a try.

I'm using the query browser over SSH, which is a lot more secure than something like phpmyadmin over a web browser. I use putty as my ssh client, a free download, and set up port forwarding for 3306 => localhost:3306.

I connect to my server using putty, then start up my query browser and connect to localhost:3306. I'm now connected to my remote database over a secure and encrypted connection.

There are a couple limitation though, primarily associated with the port forwarding. Unless you allow mysql to accept connections on more ports than just 3306, you can only have a single connection to the remote database at any time. Along the same lines, you cannot have mysql server running on your localhost, or, if you do, you must have the localhost instance of mysql listening on another port.

Hope that helps.