Esteemed Monks,
In recent posts and CB discussions I have been advised to keep password data at site root outside of the document tree of my sites and not crypted in mySQL tables. I am curious as to why this conviction is so strong. As far as I understand the processes involved, both FTP access to site root and access to data in tables in mySQL require that a un/pw pair be supplied. mySQL will additionally require that the un/pw be applied to a specific db on the server. This database's name is not necessarily obvious. On the other hand, the name of most site's FTP server is perfectly obvious, therefore that's one less piece of info to discover to get access.
Can someone explain the flaw in my thinking please?
TIA
jg
_____________________________________________________
Think a race on a horse on a ball with a fish! TG

In reply to OT ~ Security: Why is a file outside the web root more secure than mySQL? by jerrygarciuh

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