Authentication and Security - Mastering phpMyAdmin 3.1 for Effective MySQL Management - page 32

Rule Description

allow Julie from
localhost

Equivalent to 127.0.0.1

deny % from all

all can be used as an equivalent to 0.0.0.0/0,
meaning any host. Here, the % sign means
any user.

The source part can also be formed with the special names localnetA , localnetB , or
localnetC . These represent the complete class A, B, or C network in which the web
server is located. Note that phpMyAdmin relies on the $_SERVER["SERVER_ADDR"]
PHP parameter for this feature. Usually we will have several rules. Let's say we wish
to have the two rules that follow:

allow Marc from 45.34.23.12
allow Melanie from all

We have to put them in config.inc.php (in the related server-specific section)
as follows:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] =
array('allow Marc from 45.34.23.12',
'allow Melanie from all');

When defining a single rule or multiple rules, a PHP array is used. We must follow
its syntax, enclosing each complete rule within single quotes and separating each
rule from the next with a comma. Thus, if we have only one rule, we must still use an
array to specify it like this:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['rules'] =
array('allow Marc from 45.34.23.12');

The next parameter explains the order in which rules are interpreted.

Order of interpretation for rules
By default, this parameter is empty:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order'] = '';

This means that no IP-based verification is made.

Suppose we want to allow access by default, denying access only to some username/
IP pairs. We should use:

$cfg['Servers'][$i]['AllowDeny']['order'] = ' deny,allow ' ;