GRANT
    priv_type [(column_list)]
      [, priv_type [(column_list)]] ...
    ON [object_type]
        {
            *
          | *.*
          | db_name.*
          | db_name.tbl_name
          | tbl_name
          | db_name.routine_name

        }
    TO user [IDENTIFIED BY [PASSWORD] 'password']
        [, user [IDENTIFIED BY [PASSWORD] 'password']] ...
    [REQUIRE
        NONE |
        [{SSL| X509}]
        [CIPHER 'cipher' [AND]]
        [ISSUER 'issuer' [AND]]
        [SUBJECT 'subject']]
    [WITH with_option [with_option] ...]

object_type =
    TABLE
  | FUNCTION
  | PROCEDURE

with_option =
    GRANT OPTION
  | MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR count
  | MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR count
  | MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR count
  | MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS count

The GRANT statement enables system administrators to create MySQL user accounts and to grant rights to accounts. To use GRANT, you must have the GRANT OPTION privilege, and you must have the privileges that you are granting. The REVOKE statement is related and enables administrators to remove account privileges. See Section 12.5.1.5, “REVOKE Syntax”.

MySQL Enterprise.  For automated notification of users with inappropriate privileges, subscribe to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

MySQL account information is stored in the tables of the mysql database. This database and the access control system are discussed extensively in Chapter 5, MySQL Server Administration, which you should consult for additional details.

If the grant tables hold privilege rows that contain mixed-case database or table names and the lower_case_table_names system variable is set to a non-zero value, REVOKE cannot be used to revoke these privileges. It will be necessary to manipulate the grant tables directly. (GRANT will not create such rows when lower_case_table_names is set, but such rows might have been created prior to setting the variable.)

Privileges can be granted at several levels. The examples shown here include no IDENTIFIED BY 'password' clause for brevity, but you should include one if the account does not already exist to avoid creating an account with no password.

The object_type clause was added in MySQL 5.0.6. It should be specified as TABLE, FUNCTION, or PROCEDURE when the following object is a table, a stored function, or a stored procedure.

For the GRANT and REVOKE statements, priv_type can be specified as any of the following:

The EXECUTE privilege is not operational until MySQL 5.0.3. CREATE VIEW and SHOW VIEW were added in MySQL 5.0.1. CREATE USER, CREATE ROUTINE, and ALTER ROUTINE were added in MySQL 5.0.3.

The REFERENCES privilege currently is unused.

USAGE can be specified when you want to create a user that has no privileges.

Use SHOW GRANTS to determine what privileges an account has. See Section 12.5.4.12, “SHOW GRANTS Syntax”.

You can assign global privileges by using ON *.* syntax or database-level privileges by using ON db_name.* syntax. If you specify ON * and you have selected a default database, the privileges are granted in that database.

The FILE, PROCESS, RELOAD, REPLICATION CLIENT, REPLICATION SLAVE, SHOW DATABASES, SHUTDOWN, SUPER, and CREATE USER privileges are administrative privileges that can only be granted globally (using ON *.* syntax).

Other privileges can be granted globally or at more specific levels.

The priv_type values that you can specify for a table are SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, GRANT OPTION, INDEX, ALTER, CREATE VIEW and SHOW VIEW.

The priv_type values that you can specify for a column (that is, when you use a column_list clause) are SELECT, INSERT, and UPDATE.

The priv_type values that you can specify at the routine level are ALTER ROUTINE, EXECUTE, and GRANT OPTION. CREATE ROUTINE is not a routine-level privilege because you must have this privilege to create a routine in the first place.

For the global, database, table, and routine levels, GRANT ALL assigns only the privileges that exist at the level you are granting. For example, GRANT ALL ON db_name.* is a database-level statement, so it does not grant any global-only privileges such as FILE.

MySQL allows you to grant privileges even on database objects that do not exist. In such cases, the privileges to be granted must include the CREATE privilege. This behavior is by design, and is intended to enable the database administrator to prepare user accounts and privileges for database objects that are to be created at a later time.

To accommodate granting rights to users from arbitrary hosts, MySQL supports specifying the user value in the form user_name@host_name. If a user_name or host_name value is legal as an unquoted identifier, you need not quote it. However, quotes are necessary to specify a user_name string containing special characters (such as “-”), or a host_name string containing special characters or wildcard characters (such as “%”); for example, 'test-user'@'test-hostname'. Quote the username and hostname separately.

You can specify wildcards in the hostname. For example, user_name@'%.loc.gov' applies to user_name for any host in the loc.gov domain, and user_name@'144.155.166.%' applies to user_name for any host in the 144.155.166 class C subnet.

The simple form user_name is a synonym for user_name@'%'.

MySQL does not support wildcards in usernames. Anonymous users are defined by inserting entries with User='' into the mysql.user table or by creating a user with an empty name with the GRANT statement:

GRANT ALL ON test.* TO ''@'localhost' ...

When specifying quoted values, quote database, table, column, and routine names as identifiers, using backticks (“`”). Quote hostnames, usernames, and passwords as strings, using single quotes (“'”).

You can determine whether this applies to you by executing the following query, which lists any anonymous users:

SELECT Host, User FROM mysql.user WHERE User='';

If you want to delete the local anonymous user account to avoid the problem just described, use these statements:

DELETE FROM mysql.user WHERE Host='localhost' AND User='';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

GRANT supports hostnames up to 60 characters long. Database, table, column, and routine names can be up to 64 characters. Usernames can be up to 16 characters.

The privileges for a table, column, or routine are formed additively as the logical OR of the privileges at each of the privilege levels. For example, if the mysql.user table specifies that a user has a global SELECT privilege, the privilege cannot be denied by an entry at the database, table, or column level.

The privileges for a column can be calculated as follows:

global privileges
OR (database privileges AND host privileges)
OR table privileges
OR column privileges
OR routine privileges

In most cases, you grant rights to a user at only one of the privilege levels, so life is not normally this complicated. The details of the privilege-checking procedure are presented in Section 5.4, “The MySQL Access Privilege System”.

If you grant privileges for a username/hostname combination that does not exist in the mysql.user table, an entry is added and remains there until deleted with a DELETE statement. In other words, GRANT may create user table entries, but REVOKE does not remove them; you must do that explicitly using DROP USER or DELETE.

If the account does not already exist, GRANT creates it. In the case that you create a new account or if you have global grant privileges, the account's password is set to the password specified by the IDENTIFIED BY clause, if one is given. If the account already had a password, it is replaced by the new one.

MySQL Enterprise.  The MySQL Enterprise Monitor specifically guards against user accounts with no passwords. To find out more, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

Passwords can also be set with the SET PASSWORD statement. See Section 12.5.1.6, “SET PASSWORD Syntax”.

In the IDENTIFIED BY clause, the password should be given as the literal password value. It is unnecessary to use the PASSWORD() function as it is for the SET PASSWORD statement. For example:

GRANT ... IDENTIFIED BY 'mypass';

If you do not want to send the password in clear text and you know the hashed value that PASSWORD() would return for the password, you can specify the hashed value preceded by the keyword PASSWORD:

GRANT ...
IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '*6C8989366EAF75BB670AD8EA7A7FC1176A95CEF4';

In a C program, you can get the hashed value by using the make_scrambled_password() C API function.

If you grant privileges for a database, an entry in the mysql.db table is created if needed. If all privileges for the database are removed with REVOKE, this entry is deleted.

The SHOW DATABASES privilege enables the account to see database names by issuing the SHOW DATABASE statement. Accounts that do not have this privilege see only databases for which they have some privileges, and cannot use the statement at all if the server was started with the --skip-show-database option.

MySQL Enterprise.  The SHOW DATABASES privilege should be granted only to users who need to see all the databases on a MySQL server. Subscribers to the MySQL Enterprise Monitor are alerted when servers are started without the --skip-show-database option. For more information, see http://www.mysql.com/products/enterprise/advisors.html.

If a user has no privileges for a table, the table name is not displayed when the user requests a list of tables (for example, with a SHOW TABLES statement).

The WITH GRANT OPTION clause gives the user the ability to give to other users any privileges the user has at the specified privilege level. You should be careful to whom you give the GRANT OPTION privilege, because two users with different privileges may be able to join privileges!

You cannot grant another user a privilege which you yourself do not have; the GRANT OPTION privilege enables you to assign only those privileges which you yourself possess.

Be aware that when you grant a user the GRANT OPTION privilege at a particular privilege level, any privileges the user possesses (or may be given in the future) at that level can also be granted by that user to other users. Suppose that you grant a user the INSERT privilege on a database. If you then grant the SELECT privilege on the database and specify WITH GRANT OPTION, that user can give to other users not only the SELECT privilege, but also INSERT. If you then grant the UPDATE privilege to the user on the database, the user can grant INSERT, SELECT, and UPDATE.

For a non-administrative user, you should not grant the ALTER privilege globally or for the mysql database. If you do that, the user can try to subvert the privilege system by renaming tables!

The MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR count, MAX_UPDATES_PER_HOUR count, and MAX_CONNECTIONS_PER_HOUR count options limit the number of queries, updates, and logins a user can perform during any given one-hour period. (Queries for which results are served from the query cache do not count against the MAX_QUERIES_PER_HOUR limit.) If count is 0 (the default), this means that there is no limitation for that user.

The MAX_USER_CONNECTIONS count option, implemented in MySQL 5.0.3, limits the maximum number of simultaneous connections that the account can make. If count is 0 (the default), the max_user_connections system variable determines the number of simultaneous connections for the account.

Note: To specify any of these resource-limit options for an existing user without affecting existing privileges, use GRANT USAGE ON *.* ... WITH MAX_....

See Section 5.5.4, “Limiting Account Resources”.

MySQL can check X509 certificate attributes in addition to the usual authentication that is based on the username and password. To specify SSL-related options for a MySQL account, use the REQUIRE clause of the GRANT statement. (For background information on the use of SSL with MySQL, see Section 5.5.7, “Using SSL for Secure Connections”.)

There are a number of different possibilities for limiting connection types for a given account:

The SUBJECT, ISSUER, and CIPHER options can be combined in the REQUIRE clause like this:

GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON test.* TO 'root'@'localhost'
  IDENTIFIED BY 'goodsecret'
  REQUIRE SUBJECT '/C=EE/ST=Some-State/L=Tallinn/
    O=MySQL demo client certificate/
    CN=Tonu Samuel/Email=tonu@example.com'
  AND ISSUER '/C=FI/ST=Some-State/L=Helsinki/
    O=MySQL Finland AB/CN=Tonu Samuel/Email=tonu@example.com'
  AND CIPHER 'EDH-RSA-DES-CBC3-SHA';

The AND keyword is optional between REQUIRE options.

The order of the options does not matter, but no option can be specified twice.

When mysqld starts, all privileges are read into memory. For details, see Section 5.4.7, “When Privilege Changes Take Effect”.

Note that if you are using table, column, or routine privileges for even one user, the server examines table, column, and routine privileges for all users and this slows down MySQL a bit. Similarly, if you limit the number of queries, updates, or connections for any users, the server must monitor these values.

The biggest differences between the standard SQL and MySQL versions of GRANT are: