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Today I reached the task to make the PHPMyAdmin install secure on one of my Ubuntu servers.
The machine is running Ubuntu Server 12.10, but you can follow this article also for Ubuntu 13.04 and newer.
Since a web multi-domain server is running on it, my idea is:
- Have only one third level to reach PHPMyAdmin: pma1.mydomain.ltd
- Remove /phpmyadmin from every domain.
- Additional security is provided by http authentication.
Install phpmyadmin
As you may know install software in Ubuntu is pretty easy:
sudo apt-get install phpmyadmin
and the job is done.
When (and if) you’ll be prompted, chose Cookie Auth: database username and password will be prompted by the application and not stored in it.
Configure Apache
Now we need to make Apache aware of PHPMyAdmin existence.
sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/phpmyadmin.conf
and put this in it:
Let’s create the directory /srv/www if we still don’t have it
sudo mkdir /srv/www
Let’s save user and password for the require account
sudo htpasswd -c /var/www/citexnetwork/.htpasswd myusername
I suggest to use a random generated alphanumeric long password and store it in your Lastpass account, if you trust such project, or whatever keyring you’re confident with.
Add PHPMyAdmin to the enabled sites and reload Apache
sudo a2ensite phpmyadmin sudo service apache2 reload
Test
- Open chrome in a new incognito mode (another browser is OK too as far as you never open PHPMyAdmin with it to avoid caching issued) and visit pma1.mydomain.ltd is should ask you for user and pass for http auth, and then user and pass for the database.
- If you visit pma1.mydomain.ltd/setup you should have a 403 Forbidden error.
- The same if you visit pma1.mydomain.ltd/libraries .
Other security improvements
Don’t use the root account to log in
Use username and password for the specific database instead. For example in a typical WordPress installation you can find them in wp-config.php file. This will reduce the risk to make unwanted changes\drops\truncates\updates on the wrong db due to a low level of caffeine in your blood.
Use SSL encription
If you have a 30$ to spend for a cheap certificate, spend them, otherwise (like I do) use auto-generated certificates.
To use a self signed certificate:
sudo a2enmod ssl cd /tmp sudo openssl req -new > new.cert.csr sudo openssl rsa -in privkey.pem -out new.cert.key sudo openssl x509 -in new.cert.csr -out new.cert.cert -req -signkey new.cert.key -days 1825 sudo cp new.cert.cert /etc/ssl/certs/server.crt sudo cp new.cert.key /etc/ssl/private/server.key
and then tell apache to use https protocol and redirect from http to https.
To remove the boring Windows warning about certificate “untrustability”, wich affects also chrome, look at this screen:
Filter by IP
If you connect from a static ip (I do not), grant access only from that one by adding these lines to the above Apache config file: