Documentation

Reset the MySQL/MariaDB Root Password

By default, the MySQL/MariaDB installation that ships with XAMPP has an empty root password. This is a serious security risk, especially if you plan to use XAMPP in production scenarios.

To change the MySQL/MariaDB root password, follow these steps:

  1. Launch the stack manager by double-clicking the XAMPP icon in the mounted disk image.

  2. Ensure that Apache and MySQL services are running in the "Services" tab of the stack manager (or start them as needed).

  3. Open a new terminal from the "General" tab of the stack manager.

  4. Use the mysqladmin command-line utility to alter the MySQL/MariaDB password, using the following syntax:

    mysqladmin --user=root password "newpassword"

    The mysqladmin command-line utility is located within the XAMPP /opt/lampp/bin/ directory.

    For example, to change the MySQL/MariaDB root password from its default empty value to the password gue55me, you would execute:

    /opt/lampp/bin/mysqladmin --user=root password "gue55me"
    image1

    Or, if a password has already been previously set and you’d like to change it to a new one, you can use the following syntax:

    mysqladmin --user=root --password=oldpassword password "newpassword"

    For example, to change the root password from 12345 to gue55me, you would execute:

    /opt/lampp/bin/mysqladmin --user=root --password=12345 password "gue55me"

  5. Test that your password change has been accepted, by attempting to connect to the MySQL/MariaDB server using the mysql command-line client in the same directory. For example, you could use the command below to connect to the server and return the results of a calculation:

    /opt/lampp/bin/mysql --user=root --password=gue55me -e "SELECT 1+1"
    image2