MySQL Bugs: #4944: Usernames truncated at 16 characters

Bug #4944	Usernames truncated at 16 characters
Submitted:	8 Aug 2004 16:09	Modified:	10 Aug 2004 10:29
Reporter:	Al Johnson	Email Updates:
Status:	Not a Bug	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Administrator	Severity:	S2 (Serious)
Version:	1.0.9	OS:	Windows (Windows XP Pro)
Assigned to:	Ulrich Bayer	CPU Architecture:	Any

Description:
Username are apparently truncated at 16 characters when making a connection. There are some MySQL hosting sites, e.g., Blue Genesis, that have extended the username field. These hosting sites assign long usernames (e.g., "dbm.mydomainname.com" for Blue Genesis) and do not allow subscribers to change them. Because of the truncation, I cannot use MySQL Administrator to manage my databases on Blue Genesis. The error reported is "Access denied for user" and the message shows the username truncated to 16 characters. Note that long usernames can be entered into MySQL Administrator, but they are apparently truncated when used to make the connection.

How to repeat:
Attempt to connect to a database using a valid username longer than 16 characters.

Suggested fix:
Use the full username entered for the connection. Perhaps, warn the user when they setup a connection using a long username, but continue to allow it.

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not
a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at
http://www.mysql.com/documentation/ and the instructions on
how to report a bug at http://bugs.mysql.com/how-to-report.php

Additional info:

I understand your situation but there is nothing I could do about this. It's not the mysql Administrator that truncates the username but the mysql-library. At the moment mysql only supports 16 chars max for usernames, and the client-server protocol only allows 16 character for a username - it's not enough to simply alter the user table in the mysql database.