Rename MySQL root User [How To]

MySQL ships with the default user 'root' who has all kind of access to the MySQL database. We often wish to rename this user to something else because of maybe security issues or any other reason. While renaming 'root' to something else is not going to alleviate all sorts of security problems that may arise, it is good idea to rename 'root' to some other name.

Login to the MySQL console and then type the following SQL statements:

mysql> use mysql;
mysql> update user set user="some_other_user" where user="root";
mysql> flush privileges;

It is often good idea to drop anonymous users and the test database because of security reasons. I bet you are never going to use that test database so why keep it? Run the SQL statements as below to do so:

mysql> drop user "";
mysql> drop database test;

Also, make sure you use strong passwords. You can use mysqladmin to change passwords.

$ mysqladmin -u my_new_user -p password 's0m3_r4nd0m_$|r0ng_p455' $ history -c $ rm ~/.mysql_history

The later two commands are to ensure that no log of any of your MySQL queries or admin level commands have been stored in the history.

I hope this helps :)