EC
2015
MySQLERRORCommonAuthenticationHIGH confidence

Anonymous user cannot use password

Production Risk

Low — security hardening operation fails; anonymous accounts may remain.

What this means

An attempt was made to assign a password to the anonymous user account (''@'localhost' or ''@'%'), which is not permitted. Anonymous users cannot have passwords in MySQL.

Why it happens
  1. 1Running SET PASSWORD FOR ''@'localhost' = ...
  2. 2Installation script attempting to secure anonymous accounts by setting a password.
How to reproduce
trigger — this will error
trigger — this will error
SET PASSWORD FOR ''@'localhost' = PASSWORD('secret');

expected output

ERROR 2015 (HY000): You must have privileges to update tables in the mysql database to change root password.

Fix

Remove anonymous user accounts instead of setting a password

Remove anonymous user accounts instead of setting a password
DROP USER ''@'localhost';
DROP USER ''@'';

Why this works

Removing anonymous accounts is the correct security hardening approach.

What not to do

✕

Sources
Official documentation ↗

MySQL 8.0 — 2015 ER_PASSWORD_ANONYMOUS_USER

Content generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Found an error? hello@errcodes.dev

← All MySQL errors