Tag Archives: password

Plesk: mysql admin password

Since Version 10 it’s possible that the password of the mysql database of Plesk is, well they call it encrypted. This is basically fine, but may can run you in some trouble. For example if you like to install you own global phpMyAdmin installation and then try to log in as admin.

You’ll first try will be to use the same password as you will use when log in to Plesk. That will not work! Then you’ll may step over the ssh shell and type in

cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow

This will give you something like

$AES-128-CBC$X...==

Yeah … that looks like the password is encrypted. As Plesk admin you know an other way to get the password

/usr/local/psa/bin/admin --show-password

This will output the password you already tried. Then you’ll dig around the internet and may find this cmd

mysql -uadmin -p`cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow`

And … it’s working! You get access to mysql. Hmm … now you’re may a bit confuse. But thing about it. If you want to access your mysql database outside of Plesk you have to use the whole output of

cat /etc/psa/.psa.shadow

as password! Even if it look like it’s encrypted. This is your database password!

 
If you don’t like to have such a super long password and can live with a plain text password in the file /etc/psa/.psa.shadow you can change it back. But remember to repeat this every time you change the password via the Plesk panel 🙂

/usr/local/psa/bin/init_conf -u -passwd 'some_password' -plain-password

 
Alternative you can add an other user with full admin rights to your database.

Plesk: Get password of an email account

As server admin you are sometimes in the need to know the password of an email address. Plesk is making this very easy. Just run this command and you’ll get a list of all mail accounts of your server. Also the plain text password of the accounts are shown 🙂


/usr/local/psa/admin/sbin/mail_auth_view

 
Of course of have to adjust the path to your Plesk installation.