Administrating the MySQL Server - Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.4 for Effective MySQL Management - page 324

Setting passwords
Even though it's possible to create a user without a password (by selecting the No
password option), it's best to have a password. We have to enter it twice (as we
cannot see what is entered) to confirm the intended password. A secure password
should have more than eight characters, and should contain a mixture of uppercase
and lowercase characters, digits, and special characters. Therefore, it's recommended
to have phpMyAdmin generate a password—this is possible in JavaScript-enabled
browsers. In the Generate password dialog, clicking on Generate button enters
a random password (in clear text) on the screen and fills the Password and Re-
type input fields with the generated password. At this point, we should note the
password so that we can pass it on to the user.
Understanding rights for database creation
A frequent convention is to assign a user the rights to a database having the same
name as this user. To accomplish this, the Database for user section offers the Create
database with same name and grant all privileges radio button. Selecting this
checkbox automates the process by creating both the database (if it does not already
exist) and assigning the corresponding rights. Please note that, with this method,
each user would be limited to one database (user bill , database bill ).
Another possibility is to allow users to create databases that have the same prefix as
their usernames. Therefore, the other choice Grant all privileges on wildcard name
(username\_% ) performs this function by assigning a wildcard privilege. With this
in place, user bill could create the databases bill_test , bill_2 , bill_payroll ,
and so on; phpMyAdmin does not pre-create the databases in this case.
Assigning global privileges
Global privileges determine the user's access to all databases. Hence, these are
sometimes known as superuser privileges . A normal user should not have any
of these privileges unless there is a good reason for this. Moreover, should a user
account that has global privileges become compromised, the damage could be
far greater.
If we are really creating a superuser, we will select every global privilege that
he or she needs. These privileges are further divided into Data , Structure , and
Administration groups.
In our example, bill will not have any global privileges.