.. _setup:

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 :guilabel:`Users`
page can be used for this.

.. warning::

    :term:`Mac` users should note that if you are on a version before
    :term:`Mac OS X`, StuffIt unstuffs with :term:`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 :term:`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 <https://software.opensuse.org/package/phpMyAdmin>`_.

Ubuntu
------

Ubuntu ships phpMyAdmin package, however if you want to use recent version, you
can use packages from
`PPA for Michal Čihař <https://launchpad.net/~nijel/+archive/phpmyadmin>`_.

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) <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL>`_
is doing so, if it's
`enabled <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/FAQ#howtouse>`_.
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 <https://www.apachefriends.org/>`_.

You can find more of such options at `Wikipedia <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMP_packages>`_.


Installing using Composer
+++++++++++++++++++++++++

You can install phpMyAdmin using `Composer <https://getcomposer.org/>`_,
however it's currently not available in the default
`Packagist <https://packagist.org/>`_ repository due to its technical
limitations.

The installation is possible by adding our own repository
<https://www.phpmyadmin.net/packages.json>:

.. code-block:: sh

    composer create-project phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin --repository-url=https://www.phpmyadmin.net/packages.json --no-dev

.. _docker:

Installing using Docker
+++++++++++++++++++++++

phpMyAdmin comes with a Docker image, which you can easily deploy. You can
download it using:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker pull phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

The phpMyAdmin server will be executed on port 80. It supports several ways of
configuring the link to the database server, which you can manage using
environment variables:

.. envvar:: PMA_ARBITRARY

    Allows you to enter database server hostname on login form (see
    :config:option:`$cfg['AllowArbitraryServer']`).

.. envvar:: PMA_HOST
    
    Host name or IP address of the database server to use.

.. envvar:: PMA_HOSTS
    
    Comma separated host names or IP addresses of the database servers to use.

.. envvar:: PMA_USER
    
    User name to use for :ref:`auth_config`.

.. envvar:: PMA_PASSWORD
    
    Password to use for :ref:`auth_config`.

.. envvar:: PMA_PORT
    
    Port of the databse server to use.

.. envvar:: PMA_ABSOLUTE_URI
   
    The fully-qualified path (``https://pma.example.net/``) where the reverse
    proxy makes phpMyAdmin available.

By default, :ref:`cookie` is used, but if :envvar:`PMA_USER` and
:envvar:`PMA_PASSWORD` are set, it is switched to :ref:`auth_config`.

.. note::

    The credentials you need to login are stored in the MySQL server, in case
    of Docker image there are various ways to set it (for example
    :envvar:`MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD` when starting MySQL container). Please check 
    documentation for `MariaDB container <https://hub.docker.com/r/_/mariadb/>`_
    or `MySQL container <https://hub.docker.com/r/_/mysql/>`_.

Additionally configuration can be tweaked by :file:`/etc/phpmyadmin/config.user.inc.php`. If
this file exists, it will be loaded after configuration generated from above
environment variables, so you can override any configuration variable. This
configuraiton can be added as a volume when invoking docker using 
`-v /some/local/directory/config.user.inc.php:/etc/phpmyadmin/config.user.inc.php` parameters.

.. seealso:: 
   
    See :ref:`config` for detailed description of configuration options.

Docker Volumes
--------------

You can use following volumes to customise image behavior:

:file:`/etc/phpmyadmin/config.user.inc.php`

    Can be used for additional settings, see previous chapter for more details.

:file:`/sessions/`

    Directory where PHP sessions are stored. You might want to share this 
    for example when uswing :ref:`auth_signon`.

Docker Examples
---------------

To connect phpMyAdmin to given server use:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker run --name myadmin -d -e PMA_HOST=dbhost -p 8080:80 phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

To connect phpMyAdmin to more servers use:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker run --name myadmin -d -e PMA_HOSTS=dbhost1,dbhost2,dbhost3 -p 8080:80 phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

To use arbitrary server option:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker run --name myadmin -d --link mysql_db_server:db -p 8080:80 -e PMA_ARBITRARY=1 phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

You can also link the database container using Docker:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker run --name phpmyadmin -d --link mysql_db_server:db -p 8080:80 phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

Running with additional configuration:

.. code-block:: sh

    docker run --name phpmyadmin -d --link mysql_db_server:db -p 8080:80 -v /some/local/directory/config.user.inc.php:/etc/phpmyadmin/config.user.inc.php phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin

Using docker-compose
--------------------

Alternatively you can also use docker-compose with the docker-compose.yml from
<https://github.com/phpmyadmin/docker>.  This will run phpMyAdmin with
arbitrary server - allowing you to specify MySQL/MariaDB server on login page.

.. code-block:: sh

    docker-compose up -d

.. _quick_install:

Quick Install
+++++++++++++

#. 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``.
#. Ensure you have downloaded a genuine archive, see :ref:`verify`.
#. 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.
#. 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 :ref:`faq4_2` and
   :ref:`faq1_26` for suggestions.
#. Now you must configure your installation. There are two methods that
   can be used. Traditionally, users have hand-edited a copy of
   :file:`config.inc.php`, but now a wizard-style setup script is provided
   for those who prefer a graphical installation. Creating a
   :file:`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 :file:`config.inc.php` (you can copy :file:`config.sample.inc.php` to get
a minimal configuration file) in the main (top-level) phpMyAdmin
directory (the one that contains :file:`index.php`). phpMyAdmin first
loads :file:`libraries/config.default.php` and then overrides those values
with anything found in :file:`config.inc.php`. If the default value is
okay for a particular setting, there is no need to include it in
:file:`config.inc.php`. You'll probably need only a few directives to get going; a
simple configuration may look like this:

.. code-block:: xml+php


    <?php
    // use here a value of your choice at least 32 chars long
    $cfg['blowfish_secret'] = '1{dd0`<Q),5XP_:R9UK%%8\"EEcyH#{o';

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

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

.. code-block:: xml+php


    <?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
:ref:`config` of this document.

.. index:: Setup script

.. _setup_script:

Using Setup script
------------------

Instead of manually editing :file:`config.inc.php`, you can use phpMyAdmin's 
setup feature. The file can be generated using the setup and you can download it 
for upload to the server.

Next, open your browser and visit the location where you installed phpMyAdmin,
with the ``/setup`` suffix. The changes are not saved to the server, you need to 
use the :guilabel:`Download` button to save them to your computer and then upload 
to the server.

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.

#. 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 :term:`.htaccess` file or switch to using
   ``auth_type`` cookie or http. See the :ref:`faqmultiuser`
   for additional information, especially :ref:`faq4_4`.
#. Open the `main phpMyAdmin directory <index.php>`_ in your browser.
   phpMyAdmin should now display a welcome screen and your databases, or
   a login dialog if using :term:`HTTP` or
   cookie authentication mode.
#. 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 :term:`.htaccess` file in those directories.
#. 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
   :ref:`faq1_42`.


.. _verify:

Verifying phpMyAdmin releases
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Since July 2015 all phpMyAdmin releases are cryptographically signed by the
releasing developer, who through January 2016 was Marc Delisle. His key id is
0xFEFC65D181AF644A, his PGP fingerprint is:

.. code-block:: console

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

and you can get more identification information from <https://keybase.io/lem9>.

Beginning in January 2016, the release manager is Isaac Bennetch. His key id is
0xCE752F178259BD92, and his PGP fingerprint is:

.. code-block:: console

    3D06 A59E CE73 0EB7 1B51 1C17 CE75 2F17 8259 BD92

and you can get more identification information from <https://keybase.io/ibennetch>.

Some additional downloads (for example themes) might be signed by Michal Čihař. His key id is
0x9C27B31342B7511D, and his PGP fingerprint is:

.. code-block:: console

    63CB 1DF1 EF12 CF2A C0EE 5A32 9C27 B313 42B7 511D

and you can get more identification information from <https://keybase.io/nijel>.

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:

.. code-block:: console

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.5.4.1-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri 29 Jan 2016 08:59:37 AM EST using RSA key ID 8259BD92
    gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found

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 <https://files.phpmyadmin.net/phpmyadmin.keyring>`_, then import it with:

.. code-block:: console

   $ gpg --import phpmyadmin.keyring

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

.. code-block:: console

    $ gpg --keyserver hkp://pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 3D06A59ECE730EB71B511C17CE752F178259BD92
    gpg: requesting key 8259BD92 from hkp server pgp.mit.edu
    gpg: key 8259BD92: public key "Isaac Bennetch <bennetch@gmail.com>" 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:

.. code-block:: console

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.5.4.1-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri 29 Jan 2016 08:59:37 AM EST using RSA key ID 8259BD92
    gpg: Good signature from "Isaac Bennetch <bennetch@gmail.com>"
    gpg:                 aka "Isaac Bennetch <isaac@bennetch.org>"
    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: 3D06 A59E CE73 0EB7 1B51  1C17 CE75 2F17 8259 BD92

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 `Isaac's key links to
Linus's key`_.

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

.. code-block:: console

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.5.4.1-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri 29 Jan 2016 08:59:37 AM EST using RSA key ID 8259BD92
    gpg: Good signature from "Isaac Bennetch <bennetch@gmail.com>" [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:

.. code-block:: console

    $ gpg --verify phpMyAdmin-4.5.4.1-all-languages.zip.asc
    gpg: Signature made Fri 29 Jan 2016 08:59:37 AM EST using RSA key ID 8259BD92
    gpg: BAD signature from "Isaac Bennetch <bennetch@gmail.com>" [unknown]

.. _Validating other keys on your public keyring: https://www.gnupg.org/gph/en/manual.html#AEN335

.. _Isaac's key links to Linus's key: https://pgp.cs.uu.nl/mk_path.cgi?FROM=ABAF11C65A2970B130ABE3C479BE3E4300411886&TO=3D06A59ECE730EB71B511C17CE752F178259BD92


.. index::
    single: Configuration storage
    single: phpMyAdmin configuration storage
    single: pmadb

.. _linked-tables:

phpMyAdmin configuration storage
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

For a whole set of additional features (bookmarks, comments, :term:`SQL`-history,
tracking mechanism, :term:`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 :config:option:`$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 :file:`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 :ref:`faq1_23`).

If you already had this infrastructure and:

* upgraded to MySQL 4.1.2 or newer, please use
  :file:`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 :file:`sql/upgrade_column_info_4_3_0+.sql`.

and then create new tables by importing :file:`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 :file:`sql/create_tables.sql` file, you
should specify the table names in your :file:`config.inc.php` file. The
directives used for that can be found in the :ref:`config`.

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

.. code-block:: mysql

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

.. _upgrading:

Upgrading from an older version
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

.. warning::

    **Never** extract the new version over an existing installation of
    phpMyAdmin, always first remove the old files keeping just the
    configuration.

    This way you will not leave old no longer working code in the directory,
    which can have severe security implications or can cause various breakages.


Simply copy :file:`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 :file:`libraries/config.default.php` over
:file:`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 :term:`SQL` script found in
:file:`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 :term:`SQL` script found in
:file:`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.

.. index:: Authentication mode

.. _authentication_modes:

Using authentication modes
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

:term:`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 :term:`HTTP`
or cookie mode so that your user/password pair are not in clear in the
configuration file.

:term:`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
:config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$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*:

.. code-block:: mysql

   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 :config:option:`$cfg['Servers']`.

.. index:: pair: HTTP; Authentication mode

HTTP authentication mode
------------------------

* Uses :term:`HTTP` Basic authentication
  method and allows you to log in as any valid MySQL user.
* Is supported with most PHP configurations. For :term:`IIS` (:term:`ISAPI`)
  support using :term:`CGI` PHP see :ref:`faq1_32`, for using with Apache
  :term:`CGI` see :ref:`faq1_35`.
* When PHP is running under Apache's :term:`mod_proxy_fcgi` (e.g. with PHP-FPM),
  ``Authorization`` headers are not passed to the underlying FCGI application,
  such that your credentials will not reach the application. In this case, you can
  add the following configuration directive:

  .. code-block:: apache

     SetEnvIf Authorization "(.*)" HTTP_AUTHORIZATION=$1

* See also :ref:`faq4_4` about not using the :term:`.htaccess` mechanism along with
  ':term:`HTTP`' authentication mode.

.. index:: pair: Cookie; Authentication mode

.. _cookie:

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 :file:`config.inc.php`),
  see the :config:option:`$cfg['AllowArbitraryServer']` directive.
* As mentioned in the :ref:`require` section, having the ``mcrypt`` extension will
  speed up access considerably, but is not required.

.. index:: pair: Signon; Authentication mode

.. _auth_signon:

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 :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonSession']`) or you
  need to implement script to return the credentials (see
  :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`).
* When no credentials are available, the user is being redirected to
  :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonURL']`, where you should handle
  the login process.

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

.. literalinclude:: ../examples/signon.php
    :language: php

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

.. literalinclude:: ../examples/openid.php
    :language: php

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
:config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`. There is very minimal example
in :file:`examples/signon-script.php`:

.. literalinclude:: ../examples/signon-script.php
    :language: php

.. seealso::
    :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['auth_type']`,
    :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonSession']`,
    :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonScript']`,
    :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['SignonURL']`


.. index:: pair: Config; Authentication mode

.. _auth_config:

Config authentication mode
--------------------------

* This mode is sometimes the less secure one because it requires you to fill the
  :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['user']` and
  :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['password']`
  fields (and as a result, anyone who can read your :file:`config.inc.php`
  can discover your username and password).
* In the :ref:`faqmultiuser` 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 :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order']`
  and :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$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 :term:`.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).


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:

* Serve phpMyAdmin on HTTPS only. Preferably, you should use HSTS as well, so that
  you're protected from protocol downgrade attacks.
* Remove the ``test`` directory from phpMyAdmin, unless you are developing and need test suite.
* Remove the ``setup`` directory from phpMyAdmin, you will probably not
  use it after the initial setup.
* Properly choose an authentication method - :ref:`cookie`
  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 :config:option:`$cfg['Servers'][$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:
    
  .. code-block:: apache

     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 :program:`htpasswd` utility:

  .. code-block:: sh

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

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

Known issues
++++++++++++

Users with column-specific privileges are unable to "Browse"
------------------------------------------------------------

If a user has only column-specific privileges on some (but not all) columns in a table, "Browse"
will fail with an error message.

As a workaround, a bookmarked query with the same name as the table can be created, this will
run when using the "Browse" link instead. `Issue 11922 <https://github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/issues/11922>`_.

Trouble logging back in after logging out using 'http' authentication
----------------------------------------------------------------------

When using the 'http' ``auth_type``, it can be impossible to log back in (when the logout comes
manually or after a period of inactivity). `Issue 11898 <https://github.com/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/issues/11898>`_.
