Why does PHP PDO get “SQLSTATE[42000] [1044] Access denied for user” when mysql command line works?

Question

My head is bloody from how hard I've been banging it against this wall for the past several hours. :(

As the title suggests, I've created a MySQL user that can access the database fine from the mysql command prompt on the database server. However, when I try to instantiate a new PDO object to access the database with that same user, I get:

SQLSTATE[42000] [1044] Access denied for user 'bob'@'localhost' to database 'my_database'

Here's how I created the user:

GRANT SELECT, DELETE, EXECUTE, INSERT, UPDATE ON my_database.* TO 'bob'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'some_password';

What could be the problem here?! Please someone throw me a bone! (FYI, the problem happens when I try to create a new PDO object...I catch a PDOException and that's the message).

I did FLUSH PRIVILEGES after the grant, and here's the output of SHOW GRANTS:

mysql> SHOW GRANTS FOR 'bob'@'localhost';
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Grants for bob@localhost                                                                                   |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| GRANT USAGE ON *.* TO 'bob'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD '.........................................' |
| GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, EXECUTE ON `my_database`.* TO 'bob'@'localhost'                      |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

And here's what mysql.db looks like for this user:

mysql> SELECT * FROM db WHERE User = 'bob'\G;
*************************** 1. row ***************************
                 Host: localhost
                   Db: my_database
                 User: bob
          Select_priv: Y
          Insert_priv: Y
          Update_priv: Y
          Delete_priv: Y
          Create_priv: N
            Drop_priv: N
           Grant_priv: N
      References_priv: N
           Index_priv: N
           Alter_priv: N
Create_tmp_table_priv: N
     Lock_tables_priv: N
     Create_view_priv: N
       Show_view_priv: N
  Create_routine_priv: N
   Alter_routine_priv: N
         Execute_priv: Y
           Event_priv: N
         Trigger_priv: N

In case it matters, this is a four-node MySQL cluster running on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

EDIT: I've discovered that the problem only occurs when I try to access the server using Zend AMF. Any ideas why PDO wouldn't work with Zend AMF? Have I perhaps missed something in my Zend AMF setup?

Answer 1

Try 'bob'@'127.0.0.1' instead. If php is accessing it via 127.0.0.1, it'll never be referred to as 'localhost' since the local DNS resolution didn't happen, and MySQL will deny access to it.

Answer 2

For future Googlers, I had the same problem just now and I was pretty sure that password was correct. Yes password was correct indeed but the problem is how I generate password and how I keep password in config file.

If you use a random password generator like me make sure you don't have $ dollar sign in your password.

If you have $ in you password then make sure you keep you password in config file using single-quotes like this

$pass = 'randomchars$morerandom';

but not with double-quotes like this

$pass = "randomchars$morerandom";