hidding mysql passwords

[itsakoo]

Hi,

I've writen a shell script to handle the backing up of my mysql databases. The script calls mysqldump but needs to pass it the username and password. At the moment I have a script on my machine with the line:

mysqldump --user=usrname --password=mypassword ...

...which is pretty sketchy security-wise to say the least. Is there anyway of doing this without having to have the password writen explicitly in the script?

Many thanks,

pj.

[greg252]

Most people will just recommend that you put a text file outside of any publicly readable dir.

Just thought of this:
Put the vars on a floppy. call the file from the script--
works like a key.

Why Not?

[itsakoo]

Thanks for the response greg252.

The script is to be called as a cron job every 24 hours, so password need to be permanently accessible to it. Also the box is located with our ISP and is accessed by other users which is why I'm paranoid about nosey peeps.

I guess I can block access to it with permissions (i.e. chmod 750), I just wondered if there was an established solution for dealing with this sort of situation.